Workers at Amazon have announced they will be striking this Black Friday, November 26.

Black Friday is one of retail’s busiest days of the year, with products of all types being slashed in price for maximum discounts.

The BBC has reported that workers across 20 countries will be participating in the strikes and protests including the US and UK.

On the Make Amazon Pay website, it reads: “On Black Friday 26 November 2021, from oil refineries to factories, to warehouses, to data centres, to corporate offices in countries across the world, workers and activists are rising up in strikes, protests and actions to Make Amazon Pay.”

No UK Amazon warehouses are unionised, The BBC reports, so UK workers will not be striking. However, protests will be undertaken at Amazon buildings in Coalville, Leicestershire, Coventry, Peterborough and at the London headquarters.

Make Amazon Pay released a document of ‘Common Demands’, which include:

  1. Improving workplace pay
  2. Providing job security for all
  3. Respecting workers individual rights
  4. Operate sustainably
  5. Pay back society

 

The document reads: “Like all major corporations, Amazon’s success would be impossible without the public institutions that citizens built together over generations.

“But instead of giving back to the societies that helped it grow, the corporation starves them of tax revenue through its world beating efforts at tax dodging.

“In 2019, Amazon paid just 1.2% tax in the US, the country it is headquartered in, up from 0% the two previous years.

“Amazon is not alone in these bad practices, but it sits at the heart of a failed system that drives the inequality, climate breakdown and democratic decay that scar our age.

“The pandemic has exposed how Amazon places profits ahead of workers, society, and our planet. Amazon takes too much and gives back too little. It is time to Make Amazon Pay”.