Behind the Mask Online Meetup:

Amazon unmasked: Workers' rights during the pandemic

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Wednesday 17 February 2021, 19:00 – 20:30 Online Meetup

Part of the DNL Activation programme https://www.disruptionlab.org/meet-ups
Cost: free admission · Language: English

Registration: The number of participants is limited to 30. Booking is essential.
Please reserve your spot via: https://pretix.eu/disruptionlab/amazonunmasked

Warming up to our 23rd conference BEHIND THE MASK: Whistleblowing During The Pandemic (18-20 March 2021, Streaming online), we invite you to join us for our first community meetup of this year with Amazon whistleblower & Co-founder of The Congress of Essential Workers Chris Smalls together with activist Yonatan Miller of Berlin vs. Amazon and the Tech Workers Coalition Berlin.

In March 2020 Chris Smalls was fired from Amazon after organizing an employee walk-out protest against Amazon's working conditions during the pandemic that put workers at risk, including failing to inform them on COVID-19 infections amongst the staff, as well as having to work in unsanitary warehouse working conditions. Since then, he has launched launched The Congress of Essential Workers to help protect the health of essential workers.

In the meetup, he will go over his experience as an essential worker and the ongoing fight for better working conditions and fair wages. Yonatan Miller will share a local perspective on the work done by Berlin vs. Amazon and the Tech Workers Coalition Berlin.

Join us for a collective discussion on international solidarity, tactics of unionizing and essential workers' rights during the pandemic.

Program - starting from 19:00:

  • Introduction to the conference Behind the Mask: Whistleblowing During the Pandemic

  • Sharing by Chris Smalls & Yonatan Miller on their work

  • Collective discussion

Speakers

Chris Smalls (Co-founder of The Congress of Essential Workers, Amazon whistleblower , US)
Twitter: @Shut_down Amazon
Chris Smalls is a former Amazon warehouse management assistant who was fired in March of 2020 after he organized an employee walkout to protest Amazon’s poor response to COVID-19, and its failure to protect warehouse workers from infection. Chris is one of the founders of The Congress of Essential Workers, a collaborative network of workers and allies fighting for the elimination of billionaires, for wealth redistribution, and to protect the working class from exploitative CEOs. He’s sometimes better known by his Twitter handle, “Shut down Amazon”.

Yonatan Miller (Tech Workers Coalition, Berlin vs. Amazon, US/DE)
Twitter: @shushugah
Yonatan Miller is an activist turned technologist from New York. He moved to Berlin in 2015 and is involved with social movements in the streets and the tweets. He is a software developer and co-founded the Berlin Tech Workers Coalition. When he is not busy organizing, he likes to collect maps and raccoon memes. He is active within Berlin vs. Amazon, a coalition of activists, local initiatives, tech workers and artists who want to mobilize against Amazon and the so-called Amazon Tower in Berlin.

Registration

  • The event is free of admission but the number of participants is limited. Booking is essential. Please register via https://pretix.eu/disruptionlab/amazonunmasked and we will send you the link and instructions to join the online call.

Funded by: Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa (Senate Department for Culture and Europa, Berlin), Bundeszentrale Für Politische Bildung, the Reva and David Logan Foundation (Grant Provided by NEO Philanthropy). Supported [in Part] by a Grant From the Foundation Open Society Institute in Cooperation with the OSIFE of the Open Society Foundations. Part of Re-Imagine Europe co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.