What Are Amazon Staff Angry About?
The protesters are calling Amazon to account for everything from workers’ rights to the damage they say the company is doing to the environment in its relentless pursuit of profits.
Amanda Gearing, a senior organizer at GMB, told The Guardian: “Here in the UK Amazon represents everything that is broken about our economy. Insecure work, poverty wages and often unsafe working conditions: GMB will not let these shape the world of work for the next decade.”
Christy Hoffman, the general secretary of UNI Global Union, said that this, the fifth year of global protests, has been driven by a lack of change. “Amazon’s relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy,” she says, adding that it is also a stance against Amazon’s anti-union policy.
“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. We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights, and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all,” she added.
