Thousands of Amazon workers are expected to protest or strike in more than 20 countries during Black Friday to press for better workers’ rights and climate action from the US retailer.
Workers and representatives from unions and workers’ groups intend to join protests against the Seattle-based company’s practices between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (29 November and 2 December), one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.
During the annual discounting period, Amazon and many other retailers offer deals to shoppers, and warehouse staff are busy fulfilling orders.
Action is planned in big cities across the US, Germany, the UK, Turkey, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil and other countries. It is coordinated by the Make Amazon Pay campaign, which calls on Amazon – founded by Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man – to pay its workers fairly and respect their right to join unions, pay its fair share of taxes, and commit to environmental sustainability.
Spearheaded by the Swiss-based UNI Global Union for service industries and the activist umbrella group Progressive International, Make Amazon Pay is made up of more than 80 trade unions, anti-poverty and garment worker rights groups, and others.
Protests are planned outside Amazon’s UK headquarters on Bishopsgate in London on Black Friday, when tax justice UK activists and other groups will deliver a petition with more than 110,000 signatures to the company, followed by a march to 11 Downing Street. The petitioners ask the chancellor to stop tax breaks for Amazon UK and other big corporations.
Last year, Amazon’s main UK division paid corporation tax for the first time since 2020 after the end of a “super-deduction” tax break introduced by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak.
The UK-based GMB union plans to hold an online rally of Amazon workers on Black Friday. Last year, hundreds of strikers outside Amazon’s Coventry warehouse were joined on Black Friday by trade unionists from Germany, Italy and California as part of a global campaign calling for better working conditions and union recognition.
Amanda Gearing, a senior organiser at GMB, said: “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 Germany, thousands of members of the union Ver.di will go on strike at warehouses in Dortmund, Leipzig, Koblenz, Graben, Werne, Bad Hersfeld and Rheinberg.
In France, the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizens’ Action (ATTAC), which promotes tax fairness, will hold protests in several cities. This is the fifth year of Make Amazon Pay protests.
“Amazon’s relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy,” said Christy Hoffman, the general secretary of UNI Global Union.
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“Bezos’s company has spent untold millions to stop workers from organising, but the strikes and protests happening around the world show that workers’ desire for justice – for union representation – can’t be stopped. We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights, and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all.”
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.”
Amazon says it is the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the world, and that last year all its electricity was matched with renewable energy sources. It says its starting pay in the UK is a minimum of £28,000 a year on four-day week shifts.
The campaign group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice says that the company does not have any interim targets to get to its net zero emissions goal by 2040, and that its annual carbon emissions have grown by 34.5% since 2019.
At Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, workers narrowly voted against union recognition in July, but the TUC insisted that the battle for union recognition would go on.
