TENS of thousands of Amazon workers staged strikes and a walkout on Black Friday last week demanding a pay rise and calling on the company to reform its climate policies.
Employees from more than 30 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and India, took part in the protest as part of the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign.
‘It’s time for the tech giant to cease their awful, unsafe practices immediately, respect the law and negotiate with the workers who want to make their jobs better,’ UNI Global Union official Christy Hoffman, one of the campaign’s organisers, said.
Amazon workers and activists marked the traditional start of the holiday shopping season with a series of walkouts and protests to demand better pay and working conditions.
In Manhattan, activists, labour unions and Amazon workers marched outside company founder Jeff Bezos’ penthouse in the Flatiron district.
Outside St Louis, a few dozen workers walked out of the massive STL8 facility on Friday afternoon.
It was the second wildcat strike at the 900,000-square-foot fulfilment centre, where workers also picketed in September to protest against poor pay and working conditions.
Workers at the location are calling for a raise of $10 an hour and the improvement of working conditions they say are leading to too many workers being injured on the job.
The groups involved with the campaign are promoting it on Twitter under the hashtag #MakeAmazonPay.
They have a range of demands. Many are asking for increased pay, an end to worker surveillance and a slow down in the pace of work which currently results in an above-average rate of workplace injuries.
Labour actions were also planned at Whole Foods stores, which Amazon owns, and at other locations in Bessemer, Alabama; Columbia, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Garner, North Carolina; Joliet, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; and Washington, D.C.
In Germany, workers demonstrated at nine out of 20 warehouses Amazon has in the country.
In Coventry, England, workers rallied in the evening outside an Amazon facility, saying: ‘We are not robots.’
GMB union members have been asking for improved pay and conditions, calling an offer of a pay rise starting at 50p per hour insulting.
They want their hourly pay to rise from £10 an hour to £15.
Amazon has refused to recognise trade unions and claimed workers’ pay had risen by 29% since 2018. It also said staff would get a Christmas bonus of £500.
Amanda Gearing, GMB senior organiser, said it was ‘disgraceful that they’re not supporting Amazon workers through this time’ and accused the company of treating workers like ‘robots’.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, some activists rallied in front of the National Congress building holding signs reading: ‘Make Amazon Pay.’
The Make Amazon Pay campaign charges Amazon with ‘squeezing every last drop it can’ from ‘workers, communities and the planet’ in the face of the cost of living scandal, global debt crisis and climate emergency.
Make Amazon Pay, co-convened by UNI Global Union and the Progressive International, is a coalition of over 80 unions, civil society organisations, environmentalists and tax watchdogs including UNI Global Union, the Progressive International, Greenpeace, 350.org, Tax Justice Network, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, and Amazon Workers International.
The coalition is united behind a set of common demands that Amazon pays its workers fairly and respects their right to join unions, pays its fair share of taxes and commits to real environmental sustainability.
Last week, UNI Global Union said: ‘On 25 November, Amazon will face strikes and protests in at least Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the US, with more being planned.
‘The actions will bring together workers across Amazon’s supply chain with environmental groups, civil society groups and political leaders. The coalition is inviting members of the public to sign up to get involved in actions and groups to contact them about hosting actions via MakeAmazonPay.com.
‘This is the third year that Make Amazon Pay has organised a global day of action on Black Friday. Highlights from previous years include: thousands of workers striking at facilities throughout Germany, major workers’ protests in Bangladesh, demonstrations projecting the Make Amazon Pay logo at Amazon headquarters all over the world, projecting “pandemic profiteer” onto Jeff Bezos mansion, and Extinction Rebellion blockading distribution centres in the UK.’
Christy Hoffman, UNI Global Union’s General Secretary, said: ‘On Black Friday, in what has already been named #MakeAmazonPay day, unions, civil society and progressive elected officials will stand shoulder to shoulder in a massive global day of action to denounce Amazon’s despicable multimillion dollar campaigns to kill worker-led union efforts.
‘It’s time for the tech giant to cease their awful, unsafe practices immediately, respect the law and negotiate with the workers who want to make their jobs better.’
Daniel Kopp, the Progressive International’s Make Amazon Pay coordinator, said: ‘We all know that the price of everything is going up, as is the temperature of our planet. Instead of paying its workers fairly, its taxes in full and for its damage to our environment, Amazon is squeezing every last drop it can out of workers, communities and the planet.
‘As workers around the world struggle with the cost of living scandal, Amazon, despite its enormous profits, is forcing real terms pay cuts on its workers. It shirks its taxes and its CO2 emissions are soaring – up 18% in 2021 – even though Amazon only counts the emissions of 1% of its products sold.
‘In the face of the cost of living scandal, global debt crisis and climate emergency, we all have to come together to Make Amazon Pay.’
In Bangladesh, Nazma Akhter, President of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation and Progressive International council member, said: ‘Garment workers, like those I represent, toil to swell Amazon’s coffers often without any recognition that we are even Amazon workers.
‘Amazon is the third largest direct employer in the world, but when you take us in the supply chain into account, it is even larger. At work we can face sexual harassment from management and victimisation when we try to organise in a trade union against that violence and for better pay and conditions.
‘In Bangladesh, we are on the frontline of climate breakdown, so we know climate justice and social justice cannot be separated.
‘We have to Make Amazon Pay all its workers a decent wage in dignified workplaces and for its environmental damage.’
Amazon has been under scrutiny in recent years over its employees’ claims of unfair labour practices and push to unionise at some facilities.
In the protesters’ demand for higher wages, they assert that Amazon paid no income tax in Europe last year.
Amazon has continued to reach record revenue levels, bringing in $121 billion in the second quarter of this year alone.
