Amazon Faces Major Strikes and Protests This Week. Here's What's Up in LA and Abroad

Harri Weber

Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.

Amazon facility

Amazon workers, unions and advocates plan a series of Black Friday protests against the Seattle retailer, demanding the conglomerate increase wages, pay more taxes and curb its harm to the planet.

Called Make Amazon Pay, the consortium spans 22 countries and will stage strikes in Italy and France, garment worker protests in Cambodia and Bangladesh, as well as protests across the U.S.


Among those actions is a virtual town hall in Los Angeles on Cyber Monday, hosted by progressive advocacy groups Courage California and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, along with union groups like the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Organizers say the event will focus on both Amazon's practices as well as enforcement of new California rules that will require warehouses to disclose productivity quotas to workers and government agencies.

Amazon employs more workers in California than in any other state, and in September, the company added 800 new roles in Los Angeles alone.

Amid its rocketing growth in the U.S. and across the globe, the firm has come under fire from not only labor organizers but also environmental groups and climate activists, privacy advocates, and taxwatchdogs.

Concerns include reports that it destroyed millions of unsold goods, fought the passage of a major climate bill, and in some years paid nothing in U.S. federal income tax. Another sticking point is the company's ownership of security camera maker Ring, which has faced privacy and surveillance concerns over its collaboration with law enforcement.

Greenpeace, Oxfam, the Sunrise Movement and the Tech Workers Coalition are among the groups behind Make Amazon Pay. Protests and other actions are slated this week in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, the U.K., Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and India.

For its part, Amazon said it's addressing many of these issues.

"These groups represent a variety of interests, and while we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing in each one of these areas you'll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously," said Amazon's director of national media relations Kelly Nantel in a statement shared with dot.LA. "We are inventing and investing significantly in all these areas."

Nantel added that Amazon is "playing a significant role in addressing climate change with the Climate Pledge commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040, continuing to offer competitive wages and great benefits, and inventing new ways to keep our employees safe and healthy in our operations network, to name just a few."

But labor experts are skeptical that such promises amount to little more than lip service.

"They're going to make statements like that, all the while they try to bust union drives, or continue to get very favorable tax abatements to build larger and larger warehouses, and clog our roads and highways with trucks and delivery vans," said William Brucher, who teaches labor studies at Rutgers University. "That's what's going to happen, but they're going to say 'oh yeah, we sure care about workers and the environment.'"

Amazon has faced ratcheting pressure from workers and organizers in places like Staten Island, New York and Bessemer, Alabama. But so far, Amazon workers have not succeeded in unionizing in the U.S. Amazon's massive scale and ongoing growth are two of the main challenges cited by organizers.

Amazon told investors in October that it employs nearly 1.5 million people globally, excluding contractors such as delivery drivers who make speedy deliveries possible.

Out of the entire U.S. workforce, about 1 out of every 169 people works for Amazon, NBC News found as of June. Amazon trails Walmart in the U.S., which reportedly employs 1 out of every 100 workers.

Efforts to organize Amazon workers are relatively new, and Make Amazon Pay itself launched in 2020.

Burcher argues that the arrival of groups like this will make some impact. But this is likely to just be the beginning.

"I think we're also going to see a fair amount of experimentation to try and take on [Amazon,] which is now perhaps the most powerful company of the 21st century," he said.

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

Colleen Wachob On Navigating Her Wellness Journey As An Entrepreneur

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Colleen Wachob On Navigating Her Wellness Journey As An Entrepreneur
Courtesy of Behind Her Empire

On this episode of Behind Her Empire, mindbodygreen co-founder and co-CEO Colleen Wachob shares her perspective on managing stress and navigating self-worth as an entrepreneur and the importance of celebrating the wins in your business.

Read moreShow less

Indji Systems Introduces Groundbreaking Hail Detection Technology to Protect Solar Panels and Prevent Millions in Damages

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Indji Systems Introduces Groundbreaking Hail Detection Technology to Protect Solar Panels and Prevent Millions in Damages

Last week, Indji Systems, a Los Angeles-based software and online services company added its new hail detection technology to its Indji Watch platform. The latest addition to its platform comes at a time when insurers are requiring these sites to demonstrate mitigation strategies and protocols to prevent significant damage to its assets and solar panels.

The cloud based software that was announced in 2008 aims to equip solar industry players with capabilities to anticipate hail events and implement effective defensive measures for its sites.

Read moreShow less

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Mapp Gains New CPO and CTO, Prodoscore Taps Boeing Exec

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Mapp Gains New CPO and CTO, Prodoscore Taps Boeing Exec
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

***

Read moreShow less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending