Hundreds of Amazon
363 Amazon employees participated in the act of protest by signing their names to an article on Mediumand sharing quotes voicing their opinions on Amazon's climate change policy. The workers have voiced their distaste both for Amazon's practices, and its policy forbidding employees from discussing company business without managerial approval. The employees have risked their jobs to protest Amazon's policies, but also to show solidarity with two employees who were threatened with termination for previously voicing concerns, Maren Costa and Jamie Kowalski. The group, organized under the flag Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, has also taken to Twitter
Quotes on the Medium article state displeasure with the company's stance on climate change, but many others also state concerns with a wide variety of issues, from the way employees in distribution centers are treated to the privacy concerns stemming from Amazon's Ring service. "If Amazon really wants to put the customer first, they'll obsess over saving the planet and reducing their carbon footprint, and take ownership as the global leader they are, putting pressure on other corporations to do likewise. We need to insist on the highest standards for this. Anything less is thinking small, a Day 2 mindset, poor earns trust, and willfully ignoring data." Said employee Willam Shrag of the company's environmental practices. Employee Max Eliaser voiced their concern with the company's privacy practices, specifically concerning Ring, stating, "The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society. The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back."
Recent studies support the concerns raised by employees of Amazon's impact on the environment into the impact of major corporations on the environment. The Guardian shared a report that 20 corporations are responsible for an entire third of global pollution, and as pointed out by The Verge, many of them rely on Amazon for its computing and internet-based services.
Amazon's policies against employees communicating with outside sources about company business, and the resultant threats of termination, mirror similar incidents that have occurred recently with other tech giants, such as Google
- https://medium.com/@amazonemployeesclimatejustice/amazon-employees-share-our-views-on-company-business-f5abcdea849
- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/27/amazon-employees-protest-external-communications-policy.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions
- https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/27/21083330/amazon-employees-criticize-climate-change-oil-gas-work-risk
- https://www.pws.io//thanksgiving-four-firings-prompt-federal-investigation-into-google