Head of union campaign at NC Amazon warehouse fired, claims unfair termination
The worker behind a campaign to unionize one of Amazon’s largest warehouses in North Carolina was fired from the facility last week following an internal investigation into his conduct.
On Dec. 3, Amazon notified Ryan Brown of his immediate termination from RDU1, a 2 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Garner.
Brown, 43, had been an item packer since the Wake County site opened four years ago. In January 2022, he cofounded Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, an independent organization focused on unionizing the RDU workforce. Brown says Amazon’s pandemic safety response inspired him to start the group, which now calls on the company to provide $30-an-hour minimum starting wages and give workers full-hour paid breaks during shifts, which can last more than 10 hours.
While Brown and Amazon both confirmed his firing last week, the two sides disagree sharply on the reason.
“What led to my termination is that it is in Amazon’s DNA to have very brutal union-busting tactics,” Brown said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Brown said he’s been a “model employee” at RDU1, referring to his production numbers and prompt start times. A visible, vocal presence at CAUSE rallies, he says his role as the top union organizer at the warehouse was well known to management.
The National Labor Relations Board has lodged multiple complaints over Amazon’s conduct during recent union campaigns, including claims the e-commerce giant has illegally dismissed employees for supporting unions at other facilities. The second-largest U.S. private employer, Amazon has publicly stated it believes unions are not the best choice for its workers.
If the union is successful, RDU1 would become the nation’s second unionized Amazon facility, joining a warehouse in Staten Island, New York. Several thousand workers report to the site each week, with employment estimates ranging between 3,500 and 5,500. Since Labor Day, CAUSE has begun collecting employee union authorization cards, a preliminary step to call for an election.
Amazon rejects Brown’s view
In an email to The News & Observer on Tuesday, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards refuted Brown’s assertion that he was fired over his union activity.
“While we don’t normally discuss personnel matters, since Mr. Brown has chosen to push misinformation to the media, we’re compelled to share the facts,” she wrote. “Mr. Brown was terminated for repeated misconduct that included making derogatory and racist comments to his co-workers.”
In Brown’s termination notice, which he shared with The N&O, a human resources staff member writes Amazon’s decision to fire him came at the end of a “thorough investigation” into comments the company alleges Brown made last month to a manager. Amazon accused Brown, who is Black, of calling a manger an “Uncle Tom” and using another nonracial pejorative word.
Merriam-Webster defines “Uncle Tom” as a derogatory term that describes “a Black person who is overeager to win the approval of whites.” It is a reference to a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s seminal 1852 novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
“Going forward, your language and actions are expected to be professional, without the use of profanity and appropriate for the workplace,” the company told Brown. “Due to failure to comply with these expectations, separation of employment will be effective immediately.”
In her email to The N&O, Hards noted Brown “has a history of using derogatory and racist language,” citing a previous Amazon investigation into “similar misconduct.”
Brown denies using the derogatory language Amazon mentioned in his termination email. But he said he has in the past alluded to U.S. slavery when discussing his employer.
During a union-sponsored food drive outside RDU1 on Nov. 27, Brown spoke through a bullhorn to two Amazon managers who appeared to try to interrupt the event, a video CAUSE posted online shows. Brown, who has referred to the RDU1 warehouse as “a plantation,” told one of the managers, who is Black, to “get back in that field.”
Brown says he now regrets having used this phrase.
Another CAUSE member fired
Brown is not the first CAUSE member Amazon has fired this year.
In January, Duke anthropology professor Orin Starn was terminated from his job at RDU1 a month after he consumed alcohol in the warehouse’s parking lot. Starn told the company this drink was a sip and part of a toast he made to pro-union workers “to celebrate the end of a long workday.”
“As a result of this behavior, we will be moving forward with termination of your employment as your actions violated the Amazon Drugs and Alcohol Policy,” the company wrote in his firing notice.
A member of the CAUSE steering committee, Starn says he applied to work at RDU1 to inform his research. Federal law prevents workers from being fired for organizing unions, even if union organizing was a motivation for seeking employment.
The day after being terminated, Starn filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Amazon. In October, the Atlanta-based regional National Labor Relations Board dismissed his charge, but Starn has since appealed.
Brown says he too intends to file an unfair labor practice charge against Amazon.
“I never came to Amazon to organize,” he said. “I really came to Amazon to actually have a career in this company.”
A former pastor in Cleveland County, Brown today describes organizing Amazon sites as a personal calling. It is work he intends to continue even from outside RDU1.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 5:45 AM.
