Amazon Employees to Strike over Company's Climate Policies

A group of Amazon employees are taking steps to pressure the company to start significant measures for “real climate management” they say the multi-national lacks. The group, composed of over 900 employees, announced Monday its intention to hold a strike later this month, to protest Amazon's environmental policies.

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"As employees of one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, our role in the climate crisis is to ensure that our company leads on climate change," the group wrote in a post on Medium. 

"We have to take responsibility for the impact our business has on the planet and on people," wrote the group calling itself Amazon Employees For Climate Justice (AECJ).

In a video posted on social media, group confirmed “they will walk out” of their jobs in support of a global strike action against climate change on Sept. 20. 

“I’m walking out on Sept. 20 because I feel climate change is the most imminent threat to humanity that we face as a shole today,” said Peter, one of the employees who signed the AECJ petition that has over 940 signatures. 

Another employee, Bob, said he will walk out because “Amazon doesn’t demonstrate the same leadership on climate change that I’m expected to demonstrate every day on the job.”

The group wrote in a post that it calls on Amazon to commit to zero emissions by 2030; to first test its pilot electric vehicles in communities most affected by pollution; to end Amazon Web Services contracts with fossil fuel companies, and to stop funding lobbyists and politicians who deny climate change.

It was announced that about 1,000 of the company's 650,000 workers in the Seattle-based multinational company, will join the action.

The strike is part of a demonstration called by a youth movement led by Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg to demand immediate action against global warming and climate change. The day of action will take place in over 150 countries.

In April, the employees for Climate Justice presented a proposal to Amazon shareholders urging the company's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, to take the lead on the climate crisis and to create a comprehensive climate-change plan for the company. The proposal was voted down but won great support with over 8,000 employees signing a petition in support of it.

This is the first time that Amazon’s corporate employees have organized such a climate protest, however, their climate activism has become increasingly important over the past months. 

In recent years, workers in tech companies have more frequently criticized and rejected their employers’ most questionable projects, as when 20,000 Google employees walked out of work, demanding the company stop sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.