by Thousands of Amazon workers around the world are planning to take part in protests and strikes on Black Friday, Bloomberg reported.
Workers in about 40 countries — including the US, Britain, India, Japan and Australia — plan to protest on Friday, one of the busiest days of the year for online shopping, Bloomberg reported.
With a campaign called “Make Amazon Pay”, workers are demanding better wages and working conditions.
Groups on Twitter are using the hashtag #MakeAmazonPay to promote the effort, which is being coordinated by an international coalition of unions. Environmental and civil society groups are also supporting the protests.
“It’s time for the tech giant to stop its horrible, unsafe practices immediately, respect the law and negotiate with workers who want their jobs to be better,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union, one of the organizers of the campaign.
Unions in France and Germany are leading the latest collective action with coordinated strikes at 18 major warehouses aimed at disrupting shipments to key European markets, Bloomberg reported.
Amazon faced complaints of unfair labor practices as well as union campaigns at some facilities.
Staten Island, New York, employees scored the first-ever labor victory at an Amazon warehouse in the United States in March
“While we’re not perfect in any area, if you look objectively at what Amazon is doing on these important matters, you’ll see that we take our role and influence very seriously,” said Amazon spokesman David Nieberg, Bloomberg reported.
On Friday, a US federal judge ordered Amazon to stop retaliating against employees who are active in the workplace in a case brought by the National Labor Relations Board (NLB).
The NLB sued Amazon in March, seeking the reinstatement of a fired employee who helped organize a company warehouse on Staten Island.
US District Judge Diane Gujarati ruled that there was “reasonable reason” to believe the e-commerce giant committed an unfair labor practice in firing Bryson. She issued a cease and desist order directing the Seattle-based company not to retaliate against employees involved in workplace activities.
However, the judge denied the agency’s request to reinstate the terminated employee because the NLRB failed to provide evidence that the termination of the employee had a significant impact on the organizing efforts of the employees or the Amazon union.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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