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Black Friday rally outside Jeff Bezos’ NYC home calls for better treatment of Amazon workers
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Nov 25, 2022
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Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Nov 25, 2022
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Amazon was expected to see strikes in nearly 20 warehouses in Europe, employee walkouts in the United States and protests in more than 40 countries — all on its busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday.
One of the protests took place outside of Jeff Bezos’ Manhattan penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, late Friday morning.
This is the third year for the global Amazon Black Friday strike, Make Amazon Pay, which is organized by UNI Global Union and Progressive International, along with more than 80 trade unions and advocacy groups including Oxfam, 350.org and Greenpeace.
In Friday’s job actions and demonstrations, they called on Amazon to pay fairer wages, create safer working conditions, give workers more input into policies, provide more job security and allow workers to unionize. Their demands also include Amazon paying more in taxes and committing to action on climate change and sustainability. Amazon’s carbon footprint jumped by almost 20% last year, according to the company’s sustainability report. The protesters and workers want the e-commerce company to commit to zero emissions by the end of the decade.
“No matter where Amazon operates anywhere in the world, the conditions and the existential threat are the same, and that's why workers everywhere are standing up and demonstrating and striking today,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union said “We need to let the world know that Amazon needs to change.”
The company was responsible for generating nearly 600 millions pounds of plastic waste for packaging from billions of packages delivered during 2020, according to an Oceana report That represented an increase of nearly 30% compared to 2019 estimates, the report said. About 24 million pounds of waste entered waterways and seas – the equivalent of dumping a delivery van full of plastic into the ocean almost hourly — according to the report.
“While we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing in each one of these areas you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously,” Amazon wrote in a statement sent to multiple media outlets. “We are inventing and investing significantly in all these areas, playing a significant role in addressing climate change with the Climate Pledge commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040, continuing to offer competitive wages and great benefits, and inventing new ways to keep our employees safe and healthy.”
While warehouse and transportation workers received a $1 increase to their hourly pay in September, bringing it to $19, Amazon’s minimum wage for hourly employees still remains $15.
“Black Friday marks the start of the holiday shopping season around the world. And it's the day when people begin looking for what they're going to get for the holidays,” Appelbaum said. “We thought today is the day that people should realize the consequences of the decisions they make and the decisions that Amazon makes.”
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Rosemary Misdary
Rosemary is health & science reporter. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 646-544-9524.
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