The New York Times Exclusive: Amazon Fired At Least Six Senior Managers -- In The Warehouse Where The Company Lost The Union Vote.

Well. . . we can't say we are at all surprised. [One of my recent backgrounders, here.]

Though firing managers, over losing a union vote -- is a 19^th Century tactic, I suspect a more complex, more nuanced. . . game is afoot here.

My conjecture (and conjecture it is, to be certain -- not fact) is that Amazon's lawyers recently received what they regarded as credible evidence, that at least some of these managers at the losing Staten Island facility. . . violated the organizers' rights.

This would now be a game of "optics" -- of putting one's "best foot forward" with the NLRB, as Amazon has already challenged the Union's win, with the first level of the NLRB. . . and it will need to show that it "nipped in the bud" any lawless tactics, by terminating the associated actors -- as soon as company lawyers became aware of the situation. So this may also be seen as a more proactive fallout management approach, but it sure is poor. . . optically (per the NYT):

. . .After Amazon employees at a massive warehouse on Staten Island scored an upset union victory last month, it turned the union’s leaders into celebrities, sent shock waves through the broader labor movement and prompted politicians around the country to rally behind Amazon workers. Now it also appears to have created fallout within Amazon’s management ranks. . . .

On Thursday, Amazon informed more than half a dozen senior managers involved with the Staten Island warehouse that they were being fired, said four current and former employees with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

The firings, which occurred outside the company’s typical employee review cycle, were seen by the managers and other people who work at the facility as a response to the victory by the Amazon Labor Union, three of the people said. Workers at the warehouse voted by a wide margin to form the first union at the company in the United States, in one of the biggest victories for organized labor in at least a generation.

Word of the shake-up spread through the warehouse on Thursday. Many of the managers had been responsible for carrying out the company’s response to the unionization effort. Several were veterans of the company, with more than six years of experience. . . .

Workers who supported the union complained that the company’s health and safety protocols were too lax, particularly as they related to Covid-19 and repetitive strain injuries, and that the company pushed them too hard to meet performance targets, often at the expense of sufficient breaks. Many also said pay at the warehouse. . . was too low to live on in New York City. . . .

Now you know -- this is literally. . . "the revenge of the six(th)". . . for old Amazon last century tactics. Sheesh. Onward, grinning -- with Beethoven's Fourth, and the CSO, at Orchestra Hall tomorrow night.

नमस्ते