Emily Cunningham

Emily Cunningham is an American user experience designer and environmentalist. She is known for co-founding Amazon Employees For Climate Justice and for being illegally terminated by her former employer, Amazon.

Emily Cunningham
OccupationUser experience designer
Known forEnvironmental activism
Notable workAmazon Employees For Climate Justice

Early life and education

Cunningham was born in Tucson, Arizona and grew up in various cities around Arizona between Tucson, Phoenix, and Globe. She moved to Seattle, Washington in 1998.[1]

Cunningham has a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and a Master of Science in information management.[2]

Activism at Amazon

Cunningham joined Amazon as a user experience designer in 2013.[3]

In late 2018, Cunningham led an employee-shareholder proposal asking Amazon to develop a climate change initiative. In January 2019, Cunningham, along with Maren Costa and others from the group calling themselves Amazon Employees For Climate Justice, met with Amazon leadership to discuss the proposal, and in February, the company announced a carbon offset plan and asked for the employees to withdraw the proposal. At the annual shareholder meeting the following May 2019, Cunningham delivered a speech to the chief executive officer of the company, Jeff Bezos, asking him to commit to the proposed resolution. The proposal was not approved.[3][4][5][6]

Cunningham was terminated in April 2020 and filed an unlawful termination charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB determined that Cunningham's termination was unlawful. Amazon denied any wrongdoing,[7] but reached a settlement with Cunningham and the NLRB.[8] Amazon was required to pay back wages and post notices in offices and warehouses informing employees that the company is not allowed to discharge employees for organizing.[9]

See also

References
  1. "About". Corazon y Mente. April 3, 2010. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  2. "Emily Cunningham". LinkedIn. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
  3. Weise, Karen (April 10, 2019). "Over 4,200 Amazon Workers Push for Climate Change Action, Including Cutting Some Ties to Big Oil". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  4. Conger, Kate (December 16, 2018). "Tech Workers Got Paid in Company Stock. They Used It to Agitate for Change". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  5. Zaveri, Paayal; Kim, Eugene (May 22, 2019). "Amazon's shareholder meeting turns testy as investors demand action on climate crisis and diversity". CNBC. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  6. Pasternack, Alex (May 23, 2019). "The dramatic moment when an Amazon worker asked Jeff Bezos to protect planet Earth". Fast Company. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  7. Weise, Karen (April 5, 2021). "Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Workers, Labor Board Finds". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  8. Weise, Karen (September 29, 2021). "Amazon settles with activist workers who say they were illegally fired". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  9. Bhuiyan, Johana (October 9, 2021). "'Welcome to the party': five past tech whistleblowers on the pitfalls of speaking out". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
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