Fired Black Amazon warehouse worker described in memo as “not smart or articulate”

Christian Smalls, a black Amazon warehouse worker, was fired after he led a walkout of many employees at Amazon’s distribution warehouse in Staten Island. Amazon insists that Smalls was not fired because he led the protest, but because he violated a company policy that imposes a 14-day quarantine on employees who come in contact with other employees who test positive for COVID-19.

Smalls maintains that the female employee who tested positive for the virus had come in contact with many other employees. But he feels that he was singled out and fired when he petitioned managers to sanitize the warehouse where he worked. And he also requested managers to be more forthcoming about the number of warehouse workers who had tested positive.

In a meeting attended by many of Amazon’s leaders, including its founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s General Counsel, David Zapolsky made notes that were later leaked to other Amazon employees not in attendance at the meeting. Zapolsky noted about Smalls, “He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers.”

Zapolsky later issued a statement about his leaked notes, saying “I was frustrated and upset that an Amazon employee would endanger the health and safety of other Amazonians by repeatedly returning to the premises after having been warned to quarantine himself after exposure to virus COVID-19,” he said. “I let my emotions draft my words and get the better of me.”