Amazon tech workers are planning to call in sick on Friday to protest the company's firing of 2 long-time, outspoken employees
- The Amazon tech workers who have been lobbying for climate policies and better conditions for warehouse workers are organizing another protest.
- They say that hundreds of the company's tech workers will call in sick on Friday to protest the firings of workers who were fired for speaking out.
- This includes the two leaders of the protest group, fired earlier this month, and several warehouse workers fired after speaking out about conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.
- The group is pushing Amazon for a long list of climate and worker reforms. Last year, Amazon announced a host of new climate proposals after the group organized other protests.
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The Amazon tech workers who have been publicly lobbying the company to commit to major climate policies and to improve treatment of warehouse workers are organizing another protest.
On Friday, April 24, the employee group known as Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) is asking Amazon tech workers to call in sick or take the day off as a form of virtual walkout. The group says that hundreds of Amazon employees will participate.
The group has been asking Amazon employees to indicate their interest via a post on Medium using a method outside the company's email and internal communications.
"Amazon has repeatedly tried to censor the event by deleting the invitation on employees' calendars multiple times," the group alleges in its press release.
The "sick in" is to protest a laundry list of grievances, among them is that Amazon fired the group's leaders, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa on April 10. AECJ has been pushing Amazon to adopt a set of very specific climate change policies including such as zero emissions by 2030. The group was also calling on the company to stop using its cloud computing services to help oil companies.
The group's visibility did help push Amazon into announcing a suite of new climate policies last year, including a promise to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040 and to be 100% renewable energy by 2030. In February, Bezos also promised to donate $10 billion of his own money in grants to fund scientists, activists and NGOs.
The protest group has also also been vocal supporters of Amazon warehouse workers as they have lobbied for better working conditions. And tomorrow's protest will include similar support, particularly for the warehouse workers in New York and Minnesota who were fired after they protested safety measures at distribution centers during the Coronavirus epidemic.
Among the group's demands is to disclose the company's COVID-19 tracking, to increases wages for warehouse workers during the pandemic, for two-weeks paid sick leave for warehouse workers, and to end punishment of warehouse workers for those who don't meet Amazon's rate of how fast they are required to work.
To that end, the group plans to have a union representative speak during a day of online events planned: AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka as well as former labor secretary Robert Reich, and climate justice activist Naomi Klein.
This protest comes the same week that Business Insider reported that Amazon-owned Whole Foods is quietly tracking its employees with a heat map tool that ranks which stores are most at risk of unionizing
Are you an Amazon insider with insight to share? Contact Julie Bort via email at jbort@businessinsider.com or on encrypted chat app Signal at (970) 430-6112 (no PR inquiries, please). Open DMs on Twitter @Julie188.
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