More than 350 Amazon employees joined to protest the e-commerce giant's environmental policies, which does not respect the Climate Pledge
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousHundreds of Amazon employees they are protesting against the company's environmental practices, violating the internal communication policy.
Amazon's corporate rules on external communication, in fact, prohibit making public comments on activities without authorization, but the employees rebelled and they have publicly asked the company to be more committed to the environment.
The corporate communications policy was updated last September after employees received email information about the global climate strike.
The new rules required to provide a justification for external communications, the authorization of which can take up to two weeks.
In the fall, Amazon threatened to lay off at least two employees for disclosing the company's environmental practices.
Despite the risks, workers have organized themselves into a group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice for talk about environmental policies of the e-commerce giant, violating the rules.
https://twitter.com/AMZNforClimate/status/1221842637168074752
In a recent statement, the 357 employees explain their reasons.
“As Amazon employees, we are responsible not only for the company's success, but also for its impact. It is our moral responsibility to speak up, and changes in communications policy are censoring us from exercising that responsibility.
Now is not the time to silence employees, especially when the climate crisis poses an unprecedented threat to humanity, ”writes Sarah Tracy, computer engineer.
Hundreds of Amazon Workers Defy Company Policy, Citing “Moral Responsibility.” Here is our press release on what we’re doing and why: pic.twitter.com/HCV0jmb7cD
— Amazon Employees For Climate Justice (@AMZNforClimate) January 26, 2020
Paul Johnston, a former Amazon employee, writes that his decision to leave the company was due "in large part to Amazon's lack of significant climate action."
The Amazon obviously has a huge environmental impact: In addition to shipping more than one billion packages a year to the United States alone, the company consumes large quantities of electricity from non-renewable sources.
Although Amazon recently approved the Climate Pledge, with which it commits to zero carbon emissions by 2040, the company continues to contribute to the extraction of fossil fuels.
Many of the statements made by employees criticize this very aspect.
“The science of climate change is clear. It is inconceivable that Amazon will continue to help the oil and gas industry extract fossil fuels while trying to silence the talking employees. " writes Amelia Graham-McCann, senior analyst.
“Every day at Amazon I work with incredible people on big projects, but I am weighed down by the knowledge that Amazon is partnering with the oil and gas industry despite its Climate Pledge,” adds ustin Wang, a computer engineer.
This latest protest from Amazon workers adds to the increasing pressure that employees have been exercising on the company for several months.
Last April, more than 8.7000 workers signed an open letter to Jeff Bezos, president of Amazon, calling for a significant increase in the company's climate action.
As of September 2019, more than 900 employees have struck for the first time, joining the global climate mobilization.
Now the employees are asking again for a greater commitment to the environment by the company, starting with the termination of contracts that contribute to the extraction of oil and gas.
The workers want the company respect the Climate Pledge and claim the right to express their opinion and their dissent over Amazon's environmental policies.
WE RECEIVE AND PUBLISH THE AMAZON POSITION on environmental policies:
“We pay close attention to these issues and the page dedicated to 'Our Positions' makes it clear, outlining what we are already doing. Let's take climate change as an example: we founded the Climate Pledge, pledging to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. We plan to use 100% renewable energy by 2030 and have thousands of people working on sustainability-related initiatives within our company. We encourage all employees to constructively commit to working with the many teams within Amazon that deal with sustainability as well as other issues, but we apply our external communication policy and will not allow employees to publicly denigrate or put the company or the hard work of colleagues who are developing solutions to these difficult problems in a bad light. "
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