The former employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa,
publicly criticized the company and pushed Amazon to better protect warehouse
workers from COVID-19. They also wanted Amazon to do more to reduce its impact
on climate change.
Cunningham and Costa said the settlement means Amazon will
have to pay them lost wages and put up notices saying the company can't fire
workers for organizing and exercising their rights.
“This is a win for protecting workers rights, and shows that
we were right to stand up for each other, for justice, and for our world,"
Cunningham and Costa said in a statement.
In settling, Amazon also avoids a potentially lengthy
hearing before the National Labor Relations Board. Amazon said in a statement
Thursday that it welcomes “the resolution of this matter.”
The former employees, who were user-experience designers at
Amazon in Seattle, were the two most prominent voices among a group of workers
who wanted the company to take more steps to combat climate change and stop
doing business with oil and gas companies. They held protests and spoke to the
media about their concerns.
Last year, as COVID-19 spread in the U.S., Cunningham and
Costa were fired after helping to plan a call between Amazon warehouse and
office workers to talk about unsafe conditions in the online shopping giant’s
warehouses, where people worked throughout the pandemic to pack and ship online
orders.
At the time Amazon said it fired them for violating internal
policies, not because they talked publicly about working conditions or
sustainability.
Shortly after, an Amazon executive quit in protest, saying
he couldn’t stand by as whistleblowers were silenced.