Amazon workers force company to rehire unjustly fired worker after IAWV exposure
By
Samuel Davidson
10 October 2017
A single mother of two who was fired by Amazon when she was unable to work forced overtime was rehired after workers at the Pittsburgh plant united against the firing and reported it to the International Amazon Workers Voice.
Workers report that the woman, a mother of two young daughters, was coming off a Sunday 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. shift when her supervisor announced that there was going to be forced overtime, or what Amazon refers to as “flexing-up.”
She explained to her supervisor that she would miss her ride home and buses don’t run very often on Sunday. The supervisor told her it was “OK” to leave, but later that day she received an email telling her she had used up all her “Unpaid time off” and that she was fired. The International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) exposed this act of corporate abuse in an article published on September 1 that was read by thousands of Amazon workers worldwide.
Workers shared the story of her firing and demanded that the company reinstate her. The corporation then did so. The re-hiring may seem like a small victory, but it is a powerful indication of the strength Amazon workers have when they unite to protect one another’s rights.
The worker who first reported the firing to the IAWV said, “This shows that we can speak out and stand up for our rights,” adding, “People have to stick together. We have to realize that Bezos only gets his money because we are doing all the work. If we stopped working, the packages wouldn’t get delivered. These people who make all the money don’t know how to get the packages out to the customers and they couldn’t do it. People have to see that we really have the strength…