Amazon Workers Plan Global Protests and Strikes on Black Friday

Thousands of Amazon workers in over 20 countries are gearing up for demonstrations and work stoppages during the Black Friday shopping weekend, demanding better working conditions, union rights, and environmental responsibility from the e-commerce giant.

The Guardian reports that as consumers prepare for the Black Friday shopping frenzy, Amazon workers worldwide are plotting labor action against the e-commerce giant. Coordinated by the Make Amazon Pay campaign, an alliance of more than 80 trade unions and workers’ rights groups, employees and their representatives plan to protest and strike against the Seattle-based company’s practices between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The demonstrations, set to take place in major cities across the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil, and other countries, aim to pressure Amazon to address concerns about workers’ rights, union recognition, tax fairness, and environmental sustainability. The Make Amazon Pay campaign, spearheaded by the Swiss-based UNI Global Union for service industries and the activist umbrella group Progressive International, calls on Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, to prioritize these issues.

In the UK, protests are planned outside Amazon’s headquarters on Bishopsgate in London on Black Friday. Tax justice 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 are urging the chancellor to end tax breaks for Amazon UK and other large corporations. The GMB union also plans to hold an online rally of Amazon workers on Black Friday, following last year’s successful demonstration that saw hundreds of strikers joined by trade unionists from Germany, Italy, and California.

Germany, one of Amazon’s key markets, will see thousands of members of the Ver.di union 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) will hold protests in several cities to promote tax fairness.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Make Amazon Pay protests, highlighting the growing discontent among Amazon’s workforce. Christy Hoffman, the general secretary of UNI Global Union, stated, “Amazon’s relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment, and democracy. Bezos’s company has spent untold millions to stop workers from organizing, but the strikes and protests happening around the world show that workers’ desire for justice – for union representation – can’t be stopped.”