We Supported Amazon Workers
06. December 2024That was incredible!
On all six continents the message was clear: “Make Amazon Pay” for the way it squeezes workers, communities and the planet.
Workers from the US, UK and Italy came together in Bad Hersfeld, Germany — the location of Europe’s oldest Amazon fulfilment centre — to rally with striking German Amazon workers and demonstrate the international solidarity at the centre of the global days of action.
In India, Amazon workers rallied in a dozen cities across the country. Garment workers in Amazon’s supply chains led protests in multiple cities across Bangladesh and in Lahore, Pakistan, calling on Amazon to respect their rights to unions and safety.
Activists for garment workers rights tricked Amazon HQ reception staff in the Netherlands into signing permission for a demonstration in their lobby highlighting the case of Hulu Garment workers who had themselves been tricked into signing resignation letters denying them of their rightful compensation.
As increasing numbers of US Amazon workers join the Teamsters union and take action to win a union, Teamsters across the US joined the call to Make Amazon Pay. They were flanked by the first group of workers to file for a union in a Whole Foods store since Amazon bought it.
The call to Make Amazon Pay stretched around the globe from Australia where parliamentarians spoke out, via Japan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, through several countries in the Middle East, through Europe, South Africa to New York City, where trade unionists protested outside Jeff Bezos’ mansion. It continued in Seattle where bill posters on Amazon’s climate impact appeared around the Amazon Campus, joining actions in Brazil and Colombia in Latin America.
A survey by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice showed that a majority of Amazon workers do not trust senior leadership on issues such as AI ethics and the business’s environmental impact. This means it is up to us: our movement to Make Amazon Pay.
When we come together we build the power we need to Make Amazon Pay. When we connect across issues and across borders our movement is made stronger by the connections we make. Black Friday to Cyber Monday is when our movement comes together to demand a better Amazon, one where we Make Amazon Pay for its impact on workers, communities and the planet.
Together, we have the power to Make Amazon Pay, and after all the actions around the world from Black Friday to Cyber Monday we are one step closer.