 You just watched Amazon workers at their JFK eight warehouse in Staten Island all gather into the break room and Collectively demand that they close down the facility for the evening Following a fire that broke out at that particular warehouse now coincidentally This is the same warehouse that earlier this year successfully voted to form a union that detail is indeed going to be relevant here in a Moment, but for more details about the fire We go to Kenny Stancil of common dreams who explains roughly 100 night shift workers at the Staten Island facility Participated in a work stoppage shortly after a fire broke out in a trash compact or machine used on cardboard the Washington Post reported Citing officials from the Amazon labor union labor leaders said the warehouse smelled of smoke and that they couldn't breathe One worker went to the hospital They said so for somebody to be sent to the hospital for multiple workers to say that they were having problems breathing The situation is serious and they needed to shut down, but rather than just closing down the warehouse for one night Amazon's management decided to threaten them with punishment if they did not get back to work as Chris Smalls The president of the Amazon labor union explains via Twitter I've been out here in the rain talking to upset workers instead of being sent home Amazon management is threatening time deductions and written warnings for not returning back to the floor the doc Smells like burnt chemicals instead of shutting down. They hire a cleanup crew shakes my head So this is how brazen they are they are so help ends on making money that they are prioritizing that over the health and well-being of Their warehouse workers who they would not be successful without and they did come through on their threats because they ended up Suspending 50 workers who refused to go back to work now suspiciously enough 10 of those workers Happened to be Amazon labor union leaders who did lead the demonstration now some additional details here ALU lawyer Seth Goldstein called the punishment of Stan Island employees a violation of workers rights to join in a collective action About the terms and conditions of their employment quote the workers didn't feel safe going back to work said Goldstein They were engaging in rights that have been protected for 85 years under the National Labor Relations Act as the post Which is owned by Amazon's make a billionaire founder Jeff Bezos reported the mass suspension took place less than 10 days Before warehouse workers at a separate Amazon warehouse near Albany, New York are slated to vote to become the second Amazon workforce to join Amazon labor union now that Albany warehouse that was cited who will be voting to form a union in 10 days is also going to be a factor in this particular story that shed some light on Amazon's tactics here But the Amazon labor union released a statement and I want to get to that first they explained how this is not the first time that Their lives are replaced at risk and it's one of the many reasons Why they voted to form a union in the first place claiming that the company actually has a history of Disregarding their health and safety concerns and they also call on the company to stop stalling and start negotiating with the union And they added that because Amazon has still not recognized the union that they voted to form Yeah, now the Amazon labor union is stating that they will be filing a complaint over this violation here This abuse of workers by suspending them and some additional details here about that particular warehouse The Staten Island facility has earned a reputation for egregious violations of workers rights since it opened in September of 2018 data published earlier this year for instance shows that the fulfillment centers already above average injury rate increased by 15% From 2020 to 2021 so it's not like not letting Workers go home after a fire broke out is some one-off incident workers have been Complaining for years now about the way that the company just disregards their health concerns And this has been an ongoing issue at this particular warehouse now Interestingly enough a fire broke out at the Albany warehouse Now this happened a couple of days after the fire broke out at the Staten Island warehouse Now the response from Amazon management Between these two warehouses is very very suspicious in my opinion as Amazon labor union attorney Seth Goldstein tweeted out The Amazon warehouse in Albany closed the next day Following a different warehouse fire which prompted him to call for an ocean investigation of all Amazon warehouses Rightfully so because why do these fires keep happening? But an employee of JFK Adenstein Island responded saying Amazon closes down Albany won after a fire as they should but when workers at JFK a protested the fact that our building didn't close down After a fire they illegally mass suspend us so you see two completely different responses from the same Company you think that a corporation as large as Amazon would have some protocols that they are requiring management to follow But no the company suspiciously that unionized they got a much more harsher response But the company who has not yet unionized and is set to vote on a union in 10 days Well, they were met with a reasonable response workers went home the next day because the warehouse closed down So how does this look to you just at the top of your head? Does this not feel like retaliation from Amazon because the JFK 8 warehouse workers voted to form a union? So this is all just conjecture I don't have evidence for this claim, but the optics here are very very bad for Amazon So to butter up perhaps the employees at Albany won They close they do the reasonable thing. They respect the workers health perhaps to Suggest that maybe you don't need a union because we're looking out for your health and well-being Whereas at JFK 8 they don't care They just want to punish the workers who voted to form this union which they still have not recognized We can't prove this But this is one of the many things that companies do to punish workers for unionizing Amazon isn't alone here We're seeing the way that Starbucks is trying to retaliate against stores that voted to form unions by creating benefits exclusively for Employees that did not join these unions So if there was some way that we can prove that Amazon Specifically didn't close down this store and tried to make the workers Work despite the health ramifications as a form of retaliation. I would not be surprised now Again, we can't prove that but it certainly looks really suspicious here So either way at any company if the workers don't feel safe if they can't breathe if somebody actually goes to the hospital Because the smoke is that strong Something needs to be done. This can't keep happening again a 15% increase in injuries at that particular warehouse between 2020 and 2021 that is no small thing that is telling you that Amazon is not running this warehouse properly and Action needs to be taken so aside from the unions that need to be formed at all Amazon warehouses Action needs to be taken against this company by the government because they very clearly don't respect the health and safety of their workers