Welcome to Pushback. I'm Mary Mate. Dangerous conditions for workers on the front lines

of the coronavirus pandemic have led to labor actions across the country. In New York, workers at

Amazon's Statina facility staged a walkout over a lack of protective gear and a failure to

properly sanitize the building.

My name is Heaven and I walked out because Amazon lied, they told me that was one case in the building and it actually 11, so I don't feel safe.

Amazon responded in part by firing the worker who organized that walkout. That worker joins me now.

Chris Smalls, who until recently was an assistant warehouse manager at Amazon. Chris,

welcome to pushback. Let me first start by asking you to explain to us what led you to organize that walkout.

The people. I noticed people getting sick weekly.

You know, these people are my extended family. I spent 40, 50 hours a week with them. I couldn't

sit back in and do nothing, you know, so I wanted to give them a voice. I wanted to give them a platform to speak out.

This was a cry for help. Something had to be done. You know, I don't want to see people pass away from this

virus. So I took action and I took the power back.

And talk to us about your coworker. You had a coworker who was exhibiting systems and was tested and how you dealt with that

coworker and how Amazon responded to that.

Yeah, sure.

My colleague, she's on the same level as me. She's a

supervisor as well. Yeah, I walked in to work on Tuesday morning. She looked ill. She had

puffy eyes, red eyes. She looked fatigue. She had a mask on. She had gloves on. We were from a distance.

We were talking.

I said, you need to go home.

And that's when she told me that she went last night, the previous night, which was Monday, to get tested.

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