Amazon employees stage walkout over return-to-office mandate, climate goals, and layoffs

[midian182]

What just happened? Hundreds of Amazon's corporate workers staged a walkout yesterday over the company's return-to-office mandate and the impact the tech giant is having on the environment. The protest took place in front of Amazon's Seattle headquarters and was streamed live on Twitter.

Like every company introducing similar mandates, Amazon's call for employees to return to the office has been met with plenty of pushback, including a petition signed by more than 20,000 workers back in February that listed the benefits of working from home.

But the complaints failed to have an effect, and the policy requiring workers to come into the office three days per week went into effect last month. It led to two employee groups staging yesterday's corporate walkout, which they streamed on Twitter.

Amazon Employees are walking out! https://t.co/3kxrYUZAy2

– Amazon Employees For Climate Justice (@AMZNforClimate) May 31, 2023

"I'm not suited for in-office work," said Church Hindley, a quality assurance engineer (via The Guardian). "I deal with depression and anxiety and I was able to get off my anxiety medication and start living my life."

In addition to returning to the office, employees also expressed their displeasure at Amazon's impact on the environment, stating that it is failing to meet its self-imposed goals of reaching zero emissions by 2040. Amazon's global fleet of transportation vehicles, which includes planes, has a huge carbon footprint.

Protestors say the environmental issues and returning to the office are linked. One speaker noted how working from home had led some employees to become one-vehicle households, and many now don't have to make long journeys in their cars when commuting.

Another contentious issue is the number of layoffs Amazon has made. The company has slashed more jobs than any other tech giant: 27,000 since November.

More than 1,900 global Amazon workers pledged to join walkout worldwide, 900 of whom were in Seattle, writes Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

Amazon had its worst-ever fourth quarter in 2022 and experienced its first annual net loss since 2014. In addition to laying off workers, the company has been shuttering more Amazon Go stores, closing and abandoning plans for dozens of US warehouses, and pausing construction on its second headquarters in Virginia. It's even offering some Prime members $10 to pick up a delivery instead of having it delivered.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98907-amazon-employees-stage-walkout-over-return-work-mandate.html

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Go on, walk out. You are easily replaceable. There are a lot of people that have been laid off from jobs over the past 6 months (lots of tech jobs). So, go and be stupid. Walk out and take a good chance you'll be let go.

Back when that "Day Without Immigrants" came along a lot of workers at my place were all going to skip work that day. When ownership found out they talked to everyone and said that business will go on with or without them. They are more than welcome to skip work, but it will be the last day they work for the company. The day came and went and only 2 people didn't show up and those 2 people were fired because they didn't have a legit reason for being absent (doctor's note or some such).

If you think you can't be replaced, you're sorely mistaken.

 

[maxxcool7421]

Go on, walk out. You are easily replaceable. There are a lot of people that have been laid off from jobs over the past 6 months (lots of tech jobs). So, go and be stupid. Walk out and take a good chance you'll be let go.

Back when that "Day Without Immigrants" came along a lot of workers at my place were all going to skip work that day. When ownership found out they talked to everyone and said that business will go on with or without them. They are more than welcome to skip work, but it will be the last day they work for the company. The day came and went and only 2 people didn't show up and those 2 people were fired because they didn't have a legit reason for being absent (doctor's note or some such).

If you think you can't be replaced, you're sorely mistaken.

Should just burn the buildings down instead ..

 

[GeforcerFX]

Oh noo you have to go to work 3 days a week, a whole three days. This will not stand, that's pure employee abuse on Amazon's part. /s. Cry me a freaking river (might help your environmental causes as well if you do that) and to Church Hindley I also sugfer from anxiety manage it without meds and go to work 5 days a week in a retail environment and deal with customers so suck it up buttercup.

 

[Sabby]

I for one applaud the staff for standing up for what they believe in! Not all jobs can be done remotely (retail, clinical care, manufacturing, etc.), but for those that can (primarily office work), I'm a strong supporter of having that option to work remotely if one so desires (and can still be effective/productive at their assignments).

 

[kira setsu]

Complaining about having to work in an office 3 days a week...

go ahead, walk out n get fired, lose a cushy job over some nonsense, I'd gladly take your spot if I could.

 

[RandomWAN]

"Protestors say the environmental issues and returning to the office are linked."

No they're not. They're trying to make themselves seem like some sort of activist heroes instead of whiny children who can't handle the requirements of their job.

 

[Kam7r]

You can be fired for manifesting ? oh.. usa...
I'm not really ok with with they're asking but being fired for a 1 day walk out... everyday I thk god for being born in europe...

 

[p51d007]

Walkout was on their LUNCH BREAK...big deal.

 

[toooooot]

I for one applaud the staff for standing up for what they believe in! Not all jobs can be done remotely (retail, clinical care, manufacturing, etc.), but for those that can (primarily office work), I'm a strong supporter of having that option to work remotely if one so desires (and can still be effective/productive at their assignments).

Some people cant. They cant do a job from home because they cant resist doing anything but work.
Allowing all work from home means firing every one of those whose productivity is greatly reduced when they are not in the office.
The only thing I am not sure is the percentage of those who "cant" work from home.

 

[James Ryan]

Oh noo you have to go to work 3 days a week, a whole three days. This will not stand, that's pure employee abuse on Amazon's part. /s. Cry me a freaking river (might help your environmental causes as well if you do that) and to Church Hindley I also sugfer from anxiety manage it without meds and go to work 5 days a week in a retail environment and deal with customers so suck it up buttercup.

There are plenty of benefits to people working from home. For example, since a bucket load of people in my area work from home now traffic is 10x better and I spend far less time stuck in traffic wasting my time.... Trams are less crowded in the city, lines are shorter, etc. It's fantastic..... I don't see why more people don't see this as a win win..

 

[Neatfeatguy]

There are plenty of benefits to people working from home. For example, since a bucket load of people in my area work from home now traffic is 10x better and I spend far less time stuck in traffic wasting my time.... Trams are less crowded in the city, lines are shorter, etc. It's fantastic..... I don't see why more people don't see this as a win win..

There are downsides that you may not be impacted with, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any.

Businesses that rely on foot traffic, especially those open for morning breakfast and lunches now see less foot traffic and less business. When these companies are down in business it will cause them to downsize, move to kiosk ordering (which takes away from others needing to work) or even close because they can't afford to stay open.

Once those businesses close it may be hard to find others that want to come in and take over the commercial property and then you're left with empty buildings.

While it's awesome your commute has improved, it's not all roses for everyone else. Absolutely nothing good came from the lockdowns that started the "I only want to work from home" mentality that a lot of entitled people feel they deserve. It's been an awful wreck on the economy and with all the babies crying about not wanting to go back to the office, they continue to negatively impact the economy because all those businesses that thrived off the workers are now struggling or outright closed.

 

[human7]

"Protestors say the environmental issues and returning to the office are linked."

No they're not.

They are linked. Transportation costs energy, therefore commuting to work has a greater environmental cost than working from home.

 

[RandomWAN]

They are linked. Transportation costs energy, therefore commuting to work has a greater environmental cost than working from home.

They're not bringing that up as actual concern about using up resources, but instead are trying to use it to garner sympathy as if they actually have a concern for something other than their inconvenience.

Most people who whinge about the environment are the last to do anything about reducing their consumption on the front end unless it's a convenience for them. It's always hilarious to see the amount of trash left behind by climate protestors.