On September 20th, almost a thousand employees at Amazon in Seattle are planning to walk off the job to protest the company’s lack of action on climate change. The event is being timed to coincide with the appearance of teen climate activist Greta Thunberg at the United Nations.
Louise Matsakis reports at Wired:
Amazon Employees Will Walk Out Over the Company’s Climate Change InactionOver the past year, tech workers across the country have walked out to protest a wide range of issues. Google employees objected to the handling of sexual harassment claims. Riot Games workers demonstrated against forced arbitration. And WayFair staff left their desks after learning that the retailer profited from migrant detention centers run by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Now it’s Amazon’s turn.Over 900 Amazon employees have signed an internal petition pledging to walk out over their employer’s lack of action on climate change. The demonstration, scheduled to start at 11:30 am Pacific time on September 20, will mark the first time in Amazon’s 25-year history that workers at its Seattle headquarters have walked off the job, though many are taking paid vacation to do so.Most of the workers who have signed on so far work in Seattle, but employees in other offices, including in Europe, have indicated an interest in the event as well. The protest is part of a global general strike led by 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg taking place ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit on September 23.
Evie Fordham of FOX Business says that the employees also have demands because of course, they do:
More than 900 Amazon employees plan strike over climate change inactionNearly 950 Amazon employees who work at its Seattle headquarters and other locations plan to strike on Sept. 20 to convince the company to demonstrate “real climate leadership,” they announced Monday morning.”As employees at one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, our role in facing the climate crisis is to ensure our company is leading on climate, not following,” Amazon Employees for Climate Justice wrote in a Medium post. “We have to take responsibility for the impact that our business has on the planet and on people.”The employees have three main demands from Amazon. They want zero emissions by 2030 including by piloting electric vehicles in communities most impacted by pollution, zero custom Amazon Web Services contracts for oil and gas companies and zero funding for lobbyists and politicians they believe deny climate change.
Here’s an excerpt from a letter this group recently posted online, via Twitchy:
“Young people all around the world have been striking from school to call attention to the climate crisis. We’re answering their call to walk out because our role, as employees of one of the largest companies in the world, means we need to push for a climate plan that gets us to zero emissions company-wide by 2030,” said Bobby Gordon, a Finance Manager at Amazon in Seattle.Employees want Amazon to commit to zero emissions by 2030 and pilot electric vehicles first in communities most impacted by pollution. Climate science reports show that the world needs to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.
They also made this video:
Have you noticed that the left adds “justice” as a suffix for all of their pet issues? Do they believe adding that word confers some legitimacy?
Featured image via YouTube.
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