Photo: Provided by Amazon Air Hub Union Organizers
Edward Clarke (center, grey hat) says he was fired from his job at the Amazon Air Hub facility in Hebron, Kentucky for union organizing. Amazon's spokesperson disputes this.
Employees of Amazon’s KCVG Air Hub facility in Hebron, Kentucky are rallying behind a co-worker who they claim was fired for being a union organizer.
“No more retaliation or favoritism - rehire Edward Clarke now!” recently has been posted across the social media pages associated with the union campaign for Amazon’s largest Air Hub in the country.
The union effort
The massive $1.5 billion dollar Amazon Air Hub located just outside of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (the Air Hub is often referred to as KCVG) first opened in August of 2021. KCVG employees started unionizing in November after upper management announced that there would be no peak pay for the 2022 holiday rush. Amazon told CityBeat in November that it “[doesn’t] think unions are the best answer for [its] employees.”Unionizing KCVG workers are calling on Amazon to pay its KCVG employees $30 per hour, saying the highly skilled and dangerous jobs associated with working with aircraft are not compensated fairly. In November, Amazon told CityBeat that workers currently make an average of $19 per hour, but some make between $16 and $26 per hour.
Union organizers are also demanding 180 hours of paid time off with no cap on accrued time off. According to Amazon.jobs.com, employees would need to work at the company for six years or more to receive 120 hours of annual paid vacation time, or 15 days. First-year employees receive 40 hours of paid vacation time, or five days. The website also says employees get seven paid holidays and that sick time varies by state.
The third and final demand is union representation at disciplinary meetings. Organizers say the need for disciplinary representation is on full display with the firing of 58-year-old Edward Clarke.
"We’re fed up with the toxic work environment at KCVG that management maintains by dividing us, bullying us, and intimidating us, which is why we’re calling for union representation at every disciplinary meeting," KCVG union organizers said in a news release.
The firing of Edward Clarke
Clarke, a U.S. Army veteran, was hired at Amazon’s KCVG Air Hub as an associate in 2021, just one month after the facility opened its doors. He was later promoted to a load planner, which means he was responsible for the weights and balances of the cargo planes. Clarke said his job is critically important to the safety of the pilots.
“I ensure the cargo is balanced properly on the plane so we don’t have any catastrophes, like a nose-tip or a tail-tip, pilots losing their lives because of neglect or dereliction of duty,” Clarke told CityBeat. “I have very heavy responsibilities as a load planner, we have a lot of certifications we need.”
“I ensure the cargo is balanced properly on the plane so we don’t have any catastrophes, like a nose-tip or a tail-tip, pilots losing their lives because of neglect or dereliction of duty,” Clarke told CityBeat. “I have very heavy responsibilities as a load planner, we have a lot of certifications we need.”
Clarke said that on Jan. 17, he was informed via email that he was being fired from Amazon, effective immediately. In that email, Clarke was directed to his employee portal, which contained more documents that outlined the reasons for his firing. He told CityBeat that he no longer has access to the employee portal but verbalized Amazon's reasons for his firing to union organizers on Jan. 17, which they then listed on their website:
“The bogus reasons given by site leadership for Edward’s termination are: leaving his workstation computer unlocked while periodically stepping away to perform job duties. [And] allowing a Tier 1 associate — who Edward worked with regularly — to scan freight cans into the load planning software.”
Amazon responded to CityBeat’s request for comment on the firing via email, saying Clarke violated the company’s safety and security policies.
“The decision to terminate Mr. Clarke is unrelated to whether he supports any particular cause or group. Mr. Clarke was terminated for directing an unauthorized and untrained employee to complete Mr. Clarke’s duties, which included allowing the employee to use Mr. Clarke’s personal account and workstation," said Mary Kate Paradis, a public relations manager for Amazon.
Clarke disputes this, saying the employee who used his computer was trained and that the conduct outlined by Amazon is common practice among its Air Hub employees, including managers.
“This employee was a tenured associate with Amazon for 12 years. He was assisting me as he was being directed by me. He did not have access to my personal account. Scanners are used on a daily basis by Tier 1 associates,” Clarke said. “We have to step away from our laptops up to 50-70 times a day. All the load planning managers walk away from their laptops without locking them. This is not something that happens on occasion – it happens on a daily basis.”
Category 1 firing
Clarke said his firing fell under a Category 1 offense, which he said is normally reserved for violent offenses, like threats or acts of physical violence in the workplace and dangerous behavior that puts the safety of others at risk, though this policy is not outlined publicly. Amazon did not respond to CityBeat’s questions about what constitutes a Category 1 offense or about Clarke’s firing being classified as a Category 1 offense.Clarke said the Category 1 designation, which offers no opportunity for appeal, is part of the reason he believes his firing was targeted.
“I knew that this was not just a wrongful termination. This was more of a target because I’ve been more upfront about unionizing KCVG. This was a personal attack,” Clarke said. “I’ve been out front educating people about their right to unionize. I am a voice that knows how to professionally challenge leadership and what their roles and responsibilities are and encourage them to follow their own rules and responsibilities without bullying tactics.”
Griffin Ritze, an Air Hub employee and union organizer, told CityBeat that even before employees announced their intention to unionize KCVG last fall, Clarke was known for pushing back against management to stand up for his fellow employees. He said many employees feel pressured by management to skip their breaks, with some being told outright to work through break time.
“Management at Amazon want yes men, which is why a majority of their managers are fresh out of college with no experience. They don’t want someone who comes out like [Clarke] with lots of life experience who isn’t afraid to push back when they try to cut corners or force people to work without their breaks,” Ritze said.
The campaign to reinstate Edward Clarke
Union organizers encouraged employees to wear red during the week of Jan. 23 to send a message to Amazon to rehire Clarke, and organizers passed out "Ed" buttons for employees to wear. Clarke’s weekly salary is being paid by union organizers while he seeks to fight the termination in court. He's filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency, though union organizers have said "[the institution is] far from reliable allies to Amazon workers."“What happened to Edward is part of Amazon’s overall strategy for busting any attempt by Amazon’s employees to form a union,” KCVG union organizers said in a news release. “They won’t play nice, and they won’t play fair.”
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