Amazon’s employees came out in hundreds to publicly oppose the Company’s stance on climate change. They risked losing their jobs by supporting the online protest, which was organised by a group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.
This advocacy group comprising workers of the retail company had been clearly told that they would be fired if they did not stop speaking to the media.
The employees have been raising their voices against Amazon’s alarming carbon footprint, as a result of the fossil fuels used to runs its planes, trucks and vans for shipping packages across the world.
The employees disapprove of the fact that the Company’s new communications policy prevents them from speaking up, when it is actually their moral responsibility to do so.
Amazon, however, maintains that its policy pertaining to external communications is an old one and is in alignment with what is followed in most other companies. It also clarified that the policy is applicable to all the employees of Amazon and not just a specific group.
As per the policy, while the Company does not prevent its staff members from working on sustainability and engaging with internal teams to do so, it does object to its employees openly misrepresenting the company in the media. Amazon feels that this kind of protest is unfair to the other employees who have been working extra hard to develop solutions to these problems.
In 2019, thousands of employees had signed a letter to the CEO demanding, that the Company cut down on its carbon emissions, stop using fossil fuels and also avoid working with oil companies that employ Amazon’s technology to find fossil fuel deposits.
The Company has stated that it is serious about climate change issues and is working towards ensuring zero carbon by 2040 and is taking steps to use 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
