Amazon workers strike globally on Black Friday demanding pay increase

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
26 Nov 2022 12:06
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An Amazon workers' campaign, Make Amazon Pay, has organized strikes across a number of countries set to coincide with one of the company's biggest shopping days.

The Make Amazon Pay campaign organizes strikes and walkouts across tens of countries (Social Media)

Amazon workers are set to strike across the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Japan, and approximately 35 other countries, coinciding with the Black Friday sale, as part of the "Make Amazon Pay" campaign; a coalition of 70 trade unions and organizations including Greenpeace, Oxfam, and Amazon Workers International.

Black Friday is one of Amazon's busiest shopping days of the year, and warehouse workers at the company decided to stage walkouts and strikes to force the company to increase wages as the cost of living has skyrocketed.

Climate killer #Amazon! #Climate activists have blocked one of Amazon main logistical hubs in #BadHersfeld, #Germany to protest the company's working conditions and the huge ecological damage. https://t.co/vUNRNMdp69
— Make Amazon Pay (@Make_Amazon_Pay) November 26, 2021

On their website, the Make Amazon Pay campaign highlighted the importance of holding Amazon accountable, not only for the sake of workers, but also for the communities in which the company is operational and for the sake of the planet.

"Amazon squeezes workers: real wages are going down while the corporation rakes in record revenue - $121bn for the second quarter of 2022 - and doubles down on its union-busting tactics;

Amazon squeezes communities: paying no income tax in Europe in 2021 and instead was paid €1bn in tax credits on €55 billion sales;

Amazon squeezes our planet: despite including only 1% of all product sales in its carbon accounting, the corporation’s CO2 emissions rose by 18% in 2021."

Workers have clear demands

The campaign also listed the demands of the workers, which included basic rights such as health and safety. One of their demands includes the reinstatement of "all workers fired for speaking up about issues concerning the health and safety of Amazon workers and customers; engaging in efforts to organize fellow workers; or due to selective enforcement of internal policies."

Regarding matters pertaining to the environment, Amazon workers are calling on the company to commit to net zero by 2030 and end its "complicity in environmental racism, including by transitioning to electric vehicles first in communities most impacted by the corporation’s pollution."

Here is how individuals of color and low-income people are disproportionately harmed by #Amazon's warehouses.#AmazonWarehouse pic.twitter.com/V8zLY9xk9H
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 12, 2021

To better protect their communities, the workers demanded that Amazon pay "taxes in full, in the countries where the real economic activity takes place, ending tax abuse through profit shifting, loopholes and the use of tax havens, and providing full tax transparency."

Furthermore, they also demanded that the company puts an end to "anti-competitive business practices that lead to monopolization."

These are a few of the many demands workers have put forward in their Make Amazon Pay campaign.

ِِِActions across the world

The GMB union, a worker's union in the UK, organized and staged strikes and walkouts across several Amazon warehouses in the country.

A senior organizer present at one of the GMB organized walkouts said “We [the workers' union] are here today to tell Amazon [that] if you want to keep your empire going, talk to GMB to improve the pay and conditions of workers,” adding that “Amazon workers are overworked, underpaid and they have had enough.”

In France, there was no disruption. However, this does not come as a sign of approval of Amazon's practices, but rather to show the extent of people's needs. The workers in France, according to two French union officials cited by Reuters, are being pushed to accept Amazon's unfair and harmful practices because inflation is pushing them to request overtime rather than the opportunity to demand rights.