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#MakeAmazonPay campaign builds momentum on Black Friday weekend
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“Over 40% of Amazon warehouse workers are injured during peak season. Jeff Bezos is worth $228 billion. Their bodies, his bank account. It’s time to #MakeAmazonPay.”
“Over 40% of Amazon warehouse workers are injured during peak season. Jeff Bezos is worth $228 billion. Their bodies, his bank account. It’s time to #MakeAmazonPay.”
The ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign is gaining momentum as Amazon workers and representatives from unions and workers’ rights groups plan strikes in over 20 countries this Black Friday weekend. They are demanding better rights for workers and greater climate action from the e-commerce giant.
Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. Last year, Amazon reported that its Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, which began the week before Thanksgiving, were its largest ever, with consumers purchasing more than one billion items globally. Online sales on Black Friday alone reached $9.8 billion. During this busy shopping season, Amazon warehouse workers are under pressure to fulfil a high volume of orders.
Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, who is now the second wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $230 billion, Amazon has faced criticism over its business practices. In 2023, Amazon’s primary UK division paid corporate tax for the first time since 2020, following the end of a “super-deduction” tax break introduced by former prime minister Rishi Sunak.
The Make Amazon Pay campaign is led by UNI Global Union, a Swiss-based organisation representing service industries, and Progressive International, an activist umbrella group. It includes over 80 trade unions and various anti-poverty and workers’ rights groups. Action is planned in major cities across the UK, US, Germany, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, and beyond.
The campaigners note how Amazon tripled its profits in early 2024, while imposing surveillance and pressure on drivers and warehouse workers, putting them at risk of serious physical and mental harm. The activists also highlight that while Amazon plans to deploy 465,000 new energy-intensive AI servers annually, most will not be powered by renewable energy.
“We, workers, activists and citizens, will be rising up everywhere on the busiest shopping days of the year to fight Amazon’s exploitation of workers, our communities and the planet,” state the activists on their website.
A video released by Progressive International presents alarming statistics, including a worker revealing that he’s been “living in a truck for 40 days in a row, and Amazon doesn’t give a shit.” It also notes that the company paid no federal income tax on over $11 billion in profits and emitted more than 60 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Posting the video on X, James Schneider, co-founder of the People’s Momentum wrote:
“Over 40% of Amazon warehouse workers are injured during peak season. Jeff Bezos is worth $228 billion. Their bodies, his bank account. It’s time to #MakeAmazonPay.”
Amanda Gearing, a senior organiser at GMB, stated: “Here in the UK Amazon represents everything that is broken about our economy. Insecure work, poverty wages and often unsafe working conditions: GMB will not let these shape the world of work for the next decade.”
In response to the criticism, an Amazon spokesperson said: “These groups represent a variety of interests, and while we’re always listening and looking at ways to improve, we remain proud of the competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and engaging, safe work experience we provide our teams.”
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