Recording Shows Interaction Amazon Cites in Firing its Top Union Organizer at KCVG

After Amazon fired an employee from its largest air hub facility located in Hebron, Kentucky, known as KCVG, the employee and others at the nation’s largest air hub are calling the decision an act of union-busting.

“Union organizing on the job is always a risk,” said Griffin Ritze, a ramp associate and leading union organizer at KCVG. “But I think, you know, the company is clearly afraid of the momentum we have right now.”

Ritze was given notice of his firing on Jan. 23, with the company claiming he was insubordinate for attempting to attend on-site meetings held by Amazon management that dissuade employees from unionizing. The company also cited a workday where Ritze was “off task” for 255 minutes. In a statement to CityBeat, the company said Ritze’s firing had nothing to do with his leading role in unionizing KCVG.

“The decision to terminate Mr. Ritze is unrelated to whether he supports any particular cause or group,” said Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokesperson. “Mr. Ritze was terminated following multiple documented warnings and violations of Amazon policy. We expect all of our employees to follow our policies and to meet certain minimum expectations, and we take appropriate action when they’re unable or unwilling to do so.”

Ritze said the claims made against him in his termination letter were grossly mischaracterized by Amazon. During a sit-down interview with CityBeat, Ritze walked through the incidents in question, including those 255 “off-task” minutes.

Attempting to attend meetings

Amazon employees have told CityBeat that KCVG routinely holds meetings that dissuade employees from unionizing, commonly known in labor law as “captive audience meetings.” In Ritze’s termination letter, Amazon said he “self-assigned” in an attempt to attend the invite-only sessions, saying he had already attended one previously.

“On 12/4/23, your manager followed up with and explained you had already attended the meeting, the meeting was by invite, and you would not attend again as you had already attended. You failed to follow your manager’s instruction and decided to self-assign on 12/5/23, 12/6/23, and 12/8/23. This is a Category 1 violation,” the letter reads.

Ritze said the meetings, while invite-only, are meant to be voluntarily attended, and that when managers told him he could not attend the session he did not push back. He told CityBeat he was attempting to attend the meetings because their content has changed since he last attended one in November.

“The content of the meetings is totally different now, a lot more sharp against the union since we’re in the middle of a campaign,” he said. “Every time I asked, they said, ‘Oh, you’ve attended one already.’ I would say, ‘Okay, that’s fine.'”

These captive audience meetings have been a point of contention at KCVG since last April when union organizers filed a complaint against the company with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claiming employees were being pressured or told outright that joining the meetings was mandatory. The NLRB complaint is just one of dozens made against KCVG since November 2022.

The 255 minutes

The other infraction Amazon cites in Ritze’s firing documents relates to a Dec. 12 incident in which the company claims he was “off-task” for 255 minutes, or nearly 4.5 hours.

“On 12/12/2023 in attempt to conduct a STU with you for self-assigning, you were identified to be off task for 255 minutes without manager approval. Based on the seek to understand conversation, you stated you forgot to scan into SARG and labor track, and that you acknowledged being assigned to Tug, but after you attempted to scan into a tug and it did not work you self- assigned to Fingers 1 and did not follow up with a leader. This is a Category 2 violation of the Owner’s Manual,” the document reads.

Ritze said the company is trying to make it sound like he was slacking off, when in reality, he said he was lending a hand where help was needed.

“If I wanted to, like, fuck off and not work, I would have just hopped on a crew van,” he said. “Typically I drive tug everyday, but there weren’t any tugs available, so I thought to myself, Finger 1 was very busy yesterday, I’m sure they need to help again. So I got in the shuttle van, went to the building and worked in Finger 1 for probably about four hours.”

Ritze said mid-December brings an “outrageous” volume for varying sections of KCVG’s sort center, also known as the “fingers.”

“Finger 1, that’s one of the hardest jobs. I mean, I have coworkers who put in 40-50 hours a week on a finger and that destroys your body. I know a young couple that they go to a chiropractor once a week, they’re like 23, 24 years old, from doing that work,” he said. “So I was like, oh, I’ll just go to those guys and see if they need help.”

Ritze said a manager eventually approached him when they realized he was at a different work station, and their interaction did not lead him to believe he had committed a fireable offense.

“They didn’t even have a problem,” he said. “They were like, ‘Oh, next time if you come to help out on fingers, you should go talk to the manager.’”

Ritze provided an audio recording of the interaction he had with a manager in this moment to CityBeat. In that recording, the manager used phrases such as “no worries” and “just next time, we’re usually kind of easy to find, but we’re in 858 if you have any issues with tugs.”

Listen to that audio below:

Amazon did not respond to CityBeat‘s request for comment on the audio recording.

What’s next

Amazon told CityBeat that Ritze has the right to appeal his termination, which he plans to do, but his firing has become a flash point for the union effort as they fight for higher wages and more.

Air hub employees started union efforts in November 2022 after upper management announced there would be no peak pay for the 2022 holiday rush, but mandatory overtime would be required. Amazon’s gross profit for the 2023 fiscal year was $256.202 billion, an 18.52% increase year-over-year for the world’s largest retailer. Employees pushing for a union at KCVG are asking for a standard $30 per-hour wage, among other changes like improved health benefits, on-site translation for non-native English speakers, and more.

After another holiday season without peak-pay, Ritze said the union drive has picked up steam, with hundreds of workers filling out a survey about next steps and plans in motion for their largest rally to date.

“About 500 workers weighed in on things like, what should membership dues be? What are our membership rights? Should we have the right to call up the union leadership?” Ritze said. “We’re building for a rally on Feb. 3, with our co-workers, family, community members. We’re bringing out Amazon workers from Toronto, New York, Columbus and elsewhere to rally against this firing, but also to launch our independent union constitution vote to prepare for an election.”

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This article appears in Jan 24 – Feb 6, 2024.