Amazon workers across the globe are on strike for Black Friday

Amazon workers across the world have gone on strike for Black Friday, according to the labor advocacy group UNI Global Union. The protests, dubbed “Make Amazon Pay,” are scheduled to last until December 2. Strikes are happening everywhere, from the US to Australia and Nepal.

There are also demonstrations happening in more than 20 countries over “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy.” The demonstrators are petitioning the company, which is worth around $2.2 trillion, for increased wages, better working conditions and the permission to form unions. Amazon doesn’t particularly care for unions.

This includes thousands of workers in Germany, across several cities, and hundreds in New Delhi. Employees from India’s capital city are protesting after the company allegedly mistreated workers during a massive heat wave earlier this year, in which people reportedly began fainting due to heat stroke. However, Amazon sent a statement after that saying that it complies with Indian law and that there’s “nothing more important than the safety and well being of the workers."

The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen's Action will also hold protests in multiple cities across France and garment workers are demonstrating in Bangladesh. The strikes and associated protests could slow down holiday deliveries a bit, according to ABC News. This is, of course, the entire point of a strike.

This is the fifth straight year of Make Amazon Pay actions, which always start on Black Friday. The aim of the movement is to “hold Amazon accountable around the world” by targeting the busiest holiday shopping weekend. To that end, Amazon represented nearly 20 percent of worldwide Black Friday transactions in 2023, with more than $170 billion in holiday sales.

"Amazon's relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy," said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. “We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all.”

Amazon has a different take on things, writing in a statement that the organizers are being “intentionally misleading” and continuing “to promote a false narrative.” The company also crowed that it has “created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world” and that it provides “a modern, safe and engaging workplace.”

Modern and safe? Amazon was responsible for more than half of all serious warehouse injuries in the US in 2022. Let me state that again. Amazon accounted for more than half of these incidents and every other company combined accounted for the remaining 47 percent. This was reported more than a year after the company promised to spend $300 million on improving workplace safety.

However, Amazon recently announced a major investment, to the tune of $2.2 billion, to increase pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the US. That’s good news, but is only around one quarter of what the company spent on major investments in the AI company Anthropic.

Make Amazon Pay was originally launched in 2020 by the aforementioned UNI Global Union and Progressive International. The organizations say it has steadily grown each year, with this year's protests drawing support from over 30 unions, environmental organizations and civil society groups.