Amazon Workers Set for Worldwide Strike for Better Wages and Environmental Impact

By NATE GARTRELL On Nov 23, 2021

Employees of Amazon under the emblem of the ‘Make Amazon Pay campaign’ are preparing protests around the globe as the company’s workers fight for fair wages, taxation, and environmental impact.

“Amazon is everywhere, involved in almost every step of the global economy, but we are too,” according to the campaign’s website.

“At every link in this chain of abuse, we are fighting back to Make Amazon Pay. We are workers and activists divided by geography and our role in the global economy but united in our commitment to Make Amazon Pay fair wages, its taxes and for its impact on the planet,” the campaign asserted.

Amazon Workers International has been listing demands on its website from workers from 20 countries and organizations including Greenpeace, Oxfam, and Amazon Workers.

It added that activists and workers across the world will rise in strikes, protests, and other actions in countries around the world on Black Friday, Nov. 26, 2021, to make Amazon Pay.

Amazon is now worth a trillion dollars, and [CEO Jeff] Bezos became the richest private citizen to earn $200 billion in history, the coalition claims.

“Meanwhile, Amazon warehouse workers risked their lives as essential workers and only briefly received an increase in pay,” the website states.

“As Amazon’s corporate empire expands, so too has its carbon footprint, which is larger than two-thirds of all countries in the world. Amazon’s growing delivery and cloud computing businesses are accelerating global climate breakdown.”

During the past two years, Amazon paid 0% in tax in the country where it is headquartered, whereas, in 2019, Amazon paid 1.2%.

In addition to improving the workplace, providing job security to everyone, respecting workers’ universal rights, and operating sustainably, the protest list of demands also includes giving back to society.

Over 50 organizations joined forces to launch Make Amazon Pay a year ago.

Strikes and demonstrations will take place in at least 20 countries on every inhabited continent this year, according to a press release announcing the planned actions.

Planned actions also include:

A massive strike by Amazon delivery drivers in Italy;
On-site demonstrations at the Amazon South Africa regional office construction site;
As well as garment worker protests taking place across Bangladesh and Cambodia, Vice reported.

#MakeAmazonPay actions will be held in person and digitally in the United States by Athena Coalition targeted toward Whole Foods and Amazon.

Vice reports that workers in Illinois and California will discuss supply chain disruptions at a town hall in a town hall.

According to Vice, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are Amazon’s busiest sales days.

However, for its warehouse workers and delivery drivers, it means quotas are higher, workdays are longer, and injury risks are higher.

Reveal Center for Investigative Reporting reports that warehouse worker injuries spike between Black Friday and Christmas.