YCD News – On October 27-28, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Progress International co-hosted the MakeAmazonPay Summit in Manchester, England. At the summit, trade unions and government officials announced that they will go on strike on Black Friday in more than 30 countries around the world, including the United Kingdom.
The summit attracted more than 80 organizations working on labor, tax, climate, data, and racial justice, and brought together more than 400 legislators and thousands of supporters from across the globe, including Spain’s Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and U.K. Member of Parliament Zarah Sultan, among others.
On October 26, just before the summit, Amazon announced its third quarter results, announcing that its profits had tripled to $9.9 billion, or about £8.2 billion.
The MakeAmazonPay campaign has organized four global strike actions since 2020. Last year, the MakeAmazonPay coalition organized more than 135 strikes and protests in 35 countries during Black Friday.
At the summit, a spokesman for Progress International said that this year’s strike may have the biggest impact to date, which means that Amazon’s peak-season order delivery may be even more disruptive.
Recently, British media reported that more than 1,000 workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have planned a four-day strike in November, including the day of the Black Friday sale.
In fact, since last year, Amazon has faced almost no let-up in worker strike action around the world. Not only have UK warehouse workers held multiple strikes, but during this year’s PrimeDay, German warehouse workers launched a strike. In the U.S., Amazon delivery drivers formed the first-ever drivers’ union and set up rolling pickets.
A massive protest by hundreds of warehouse workers outside New Delhi, India, forced Amazon to make major concessions. In Bangladesh, garment workers joined forces with allies around the world to demand that Amazon sign international agreements to protect their safety.
In Barcelona, the city taxed Amazon for using “free” public space for “last mile” deliveries. The Minnesota Senate passed the strongest Amazon warehouse worker protection bill in the United States, and the Irish Senate passed a law prohibiting Amazon from dumping new and unused products.