Amazon (AMZN) Stock Up Nearly 1%, Amazon VP Quits over Virus Firings

Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock continues scaling up amidst the harsh economic period caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The e-commerce business has experienced a sharp uptick in demand as more people opt to self-quarantine awaiting possible vaccines. The stock closed yesterday trading at $2,315, after adding 29.95 during the day. Today at the time of writing, AMZN is 0.71% up, at $2,332.36.

Amazon stock has been one of the best traditional stocks that have seen investment portfolios remain on a green zone amid the crisis. With an increase in Q1 sales and revenue, the company is anticipating an increase in the coming quarters, as the virus continues threatening the social fabric of society.

Amazon VP Quits

However, it was not all rosy for the company, as the Vice president and also a senior engineer at Amazon Web Services Tim Bray quit his job. According to Bray, he left his position because he was dismayed that the company fired whistleblowers who were trying to draw attention to the dire straits of Amazon warehouse workers.

“Remaining an Amazon Vice President would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” he said. “So I resigned. The victims weren’t abstract entities but real people; here are some of their names: Courtney Bowden, Gerald Bryson, Maren Costa, Emily Cunningham, and Chris Smalls. I am sure it’s a coincidence that every one of them is a person of colour, a woman, or both,” Bray concluded in a blog post.

According to Bray, it’s all about power balances, whereby warehouse workers are weak and getting weaker. He said that any plausible solution has to start with increasing their collective strength.

Amazon (AMZN) Stock amid COVID-19

One thing that has been pulling Amazon behind is its policy in regards to climate protection, with a section of its employees fighting for the management to take responsible actions. With the coronavirus being a respiratory condition, having a clean environment would be the priority at such dire times.

Amazon has also been facing constant criticism about how it has treated its warehouse workers who lack proper coronavirus protective gear. The workers have also been complaining that they have been kept in the dark about whether co-workers have tested positive or not for the coronavirus.

In response, Amazon said that some of the workers were fired for violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk.

As it has been already mentioned,  AMZN stock is still scaling up at the time of writing. Despite the short-term challenges, Amazon remains very bullish in the future.

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