For employees, it’s “Make Amazon Pay Day”

It’s Black Friday or, as the UNI Global Union calls it, “Make Amazon Pay Day”. For the past four years, Amazon workers in various countries have walked off their jobs on Black Friday to protest working conditions and environmental damage. And this year they are doing the same thing. According to ABC, workers in more than 20 countries, including the United States, walked off their jobs on Friday as part of the “Days of Resistance to Make Amazon Pay” leading up to Cyber ​​Monday, which is one of the busiest Holiday shopping weekends of the year extend message. Last year, Amazon recorded total sales of $170 billion on Black Friday, accounting for 18% of global sales, the store said.

“Amazon’s relentless pursuit of profit comes at the expense of workers, the environment and democracy,” said Christy Hoffman, secretary general of the UNI Global Union, a leader of the demonstrations that represents more than 20 million service workers in 150 countries. per UPI. She says Amazon has spent millions of dollars “to discourage workers from organizing.” These days of protest “show that workers’ desire for justice – for union representation – cannot be stopped,” she adds. “We collectively demand that Amazon treats its employees fairly, respects fundamental rights and stops undermining the systems designed to protect us all.”

In a statement Thursday, Amazon representative Eileen Hards said the union was “intentionally misleading and continues to spread a false narrative,” emphasizing that “we offer good wages, great benefits and great opportunities from day one.” This happened briefly after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon violated federal labor protections by encouraging union-supporting employees to attend anti-union meetings at a facility in 2022, according to UPI Staten Island forced. Thousands of workers in Germany are expected to join the weekend strike, as are some workers in the US, Britain, India, Brazil, Japan, Belgium and Luxembourg. Amazon deliveries could be delayed as a result. (More Amazon stories.)