On Black Friday (Friday, 29th November), Amazon employees are going on strike for the sixth consecutive day. Together with activists and unions, the global workforce of the e-commerce behemoth has launched the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign, calling on the firm to respect unions, pay fair salaries, stop the purported tax advantage, and fight climate change and its effects.
Twenty countries—including the US, UK, Germany, France, Turkey, Canada, India, Japan, and Brazil—are seeing action. British media outlets predict that thousands of people will take part. It has also been claimed that US Amazon employees intend to go on strike on Cyber Monday, 2nd December.
Among other things, the American e-tailer is accused by the GMB union of paying poor salaries and fostering hazardous working conditions. The business seems to maintain its stance that it provides benefits including competitive pay, a safe workplace, and a dedication to sustainability in spite of years of criticism. This stands in contradiction to the assertions made by the unions, campaigners, and striking employees.
Around the world, protests have been planned. In the UK, Amazon employees will join campaigners and unions at the company’s London headquarters to call for an end to tax benefits for Amazon and other large corporations. ATTAC for Tax Justice is organising rallies in France, while union members in Germany will go on strike at several warehouses.
