After several rounds of layoffs, Amazon is now faced with a walkout protest. The corporate employees of the e-commerce company are planning to stage a walkout on 31 May, against the company’s return-to-work policies. Earlier this year, Amazon had asked its employees to work from office at least thrice a week, starting 1 May 2023.
The employees are demanding that they be given more flexibility with regard to where and how they work. They are urging Amazon to focus on climate impact when it comes to deciding on their return-to-work policies.
The walkout is being organised under the aegis of a climate justice worker group — Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) — from within the company itself. The walkout also has the support of a remote work advocacy group.
On 31 May, 2023, Amazon staff plan to boycott work starting lunch time. However, it is also reported that the walkout will happen only if at least 1,000 employees participate in the same.
While the walkout is to take place in Seattle, where the company is headquartered, employees are allowed to take part virtually from other locations too.
Workers have been unhappy even since Amazon began laying off staff members in 2022. The company has already revealed its intentions to lay off thousands of employees in various rounds of layoffs this year.
Additionally, the AECJ group has criticised Amazon on social media saying that the company’s commitment to climate goals is far from genuine. Amazon, however, claims that it hopes to fulfil its goal of using renewable energy to power 100 per cent of its operations by 2025, instead of 2030 as was earlier expected.
