Ex-Amazon employee on Bezos stepping down: ‘Nothing will change’

In This Article:

Chris Smalls, Founder of The Congress of Essential Workers, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down what the CEO shake-up at Amazon means for the company's workers.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Now Jeff Bezos is stepping back from his role as CEO of Amazon to pursue some of his passions, like his space exploration company, Blue Origin. But how is this going to impact how Amazon runs or how its employees are treated?

Well, we're joined now by Chris Smalls, founder of TCOEW, The Congress Of Essential Workers. Now Chris was fired by Amazon after organizing a protest over worker safety. So Chris, I want to ask you what was your reaction to this news when you heard that Jeff Bezos would be not totally stepping down, but really taking a step back and moving into this role as executive chairman.

CHRIS SMALLS: Yeah, you know, it was for myself, personally, you know, I felt like, you know, a moral victory. But systemically and fundamentally, nothing changed. You know, I'm taking words from Joe Biden. Fundamentally, nothing is going to change.

You know, we know that being an executive position, he still holds all the power there. He's still going to be in the decision making room. And, you know, we still have to apply the pressure that we have been from the beginning of the pandemic. So, for me, nothing's changed. It's just some news, breaking news, for everybody else.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now I hear what you're saying, that especially with his continued involvement in the company, that really, nothing is changing, except the person at the top. Curious to know if you have anyone or know of folks that have worked under Andy Jassy that might indicate what kind of leader that he would be, at least towards his-- towards some of his employees.

CHRIS SMALLS: I'm not aware of anybody that worked directly under him. I know what I can speak about is that, you know, we remember what happened last year. Tim Bray, who worked for AWS, he resigned. So maybe there will be some better insight coming from him. But I can tell you, who replaced him, I don't know. You know, that's a good question about who's replacing Andy Jassy there at AWS.

For him to make this sudden change with Jeff Bezos, or for both of them to make this sudden change in leadership, that's the real question, though, the reason why. But, you know, I think I can speculate on him and definitely say that, you know, the negativity and the stories that have coming out-- came out recently regarding the company and regarding Jeff Bezos, I think may have been a combination of everything.