Video posted on Facebook shows workers throwing packages at Anchorage company contracting with Amazon

A video showing warehouse workers in Anchorage shouting as they throw Amazon packages across the room, many landing with a thud or rattle as they hit the concrete floor, reached thousands over the weekend.

Some of the employees caught on video were subsequently fired, a company executive said Monday.

"There’s a number of disciplinary actions that have taken place,” said Kim Howard, vice president of operations at Naniq Global Logistics.

“Our stance is this is an unfortunate incident, and we have taken steps and measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” she said.

Howard declined to elaborate or say how many firings occurred.

A video of the chaotic scene at the Legacy Logistics warehouse near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport was posted Thursday on Facebook. By Monday morning, it had more than 4,000 shares and dozens of outraged comments.

One of the people in the video is labeled as a supervisor. Howard said managers did receive disciplinary action but declined to say if any were fired or what role they played in the culture that allowed the behavior to take place.

An Amazon representative said the company was aware of the incident and that it took place in the Anchorage warehouse. The Amazon representative, Rena Lunak, referred further questions to Naniq Global Logistics.

“This does not meet the high standards we have for how our packages should be handled and cared for," Lunak said in an email. "We are working closely with our partner, Naniq, who operates the facility and the associates involved are no longer handling packages.”

Lunak said Amazon is still contracting with Naniq.

Legacy is the warehouse arm of Naniq, which runs the office side of a third-party company that collects and sorts packages coming off planes for ground shippers such as FedEx.

Both companies are managed and owned by John Witte, according to their state business licenses. Both are run out of a building in the Kulis Business Park near the Anchorage airport.

“We partner with top Multinational Logistics Corporations such as DHL, FedEx, DB Schenker, and Toll Group,” says the Naniq website.

The video currently receiving thousands of shares is not the original video. Anchorage resident Keith Ah-Fua saw it and was disturbed. He was waiting on some expensive items from Amazon, he said. Worried the video would get taken down, he recorded it on his phone and posted it to his own page.

Reached on his cell phone Monday morning, Witte at first said the video wasn’t filmed at the Legacy warehouse, and then said it was filmed at the airport. The Legacy warehouse is adjacent to the airport. The building is owned by the state of Alaska and the airport, according to local property records.

Witte said he was familiar with the video and declined to comment. Later in the day, Howard called to provide comment.