Amazon has no shortage of instances where its employees stood against the company due to its policies and working environments, among others. Now, the employees are going against the retail giant's mandate for on-site operations, as well as its carbon footprint.
Amazon Employees Walkout
As the pandemic died down, corporate jobs that shifted to remote work have returned to their normal routine of in-office work. The same is happening with Amazon employees, although they believe that it is the wrong move for the retail giant.
The employees involved in the walkout mentioned a "lack of trust" in leadership for the recent policy. Two groups are leading the movement- Amazon's Remote Advocacy (ARA) and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), as reported by Gizmodo.
The AECJ expressed that the climate crisis is happening and that the movement was a chance to stand together in solidarity to save Earth, adding that anyone who participates will join the group of Amazon employees urging the company to do better on climate issues.
There are nearly 2,000 Amazon employees who are joining the walkout which is set to happen on Wednesday. 870 of the employees are based in Seattle. Both group's petition stated that employees need a say in decisions that affect their lives.
The walkout follows the recent layoffs that the company has conducted, which have affected 18,000 employees this January. Overall, the retail giant has already laid off around 27,000 jobs in the span of a year, as reports say.
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Amazon's Response
Despite the efforts of employees to fight for remote work, Amazon will not be changing its decision and will continue to implement the back-to-office policy, as stated by Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser to ABC News.
Glasser mentioned that they have always been listening and will continue to do so, but the first month of having their employees back in the office has been good as there is more energy, collaboration, connections, and the businesses around the office are happy for it.
The spokesperson also acknowledge that it will take time to get used to the adjustment and that there are a lot of teams at the company who are trying to make the transition as smooth as possible. But then again, there's the issue of the retail giant's carbon footprint.
Glasser also addressed the issue, saying that the company is already working towards reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. 400 companies have already joined the "Climate Pledge," but the spokesperson also noted that it will take some time to achieve this.
Amazon, being a retail giant, requires a lot of vehicles for certain business aspects shipping, and other forms of transportation. It also uses various machines to handle packages within its warehouses among other locations.
One of the solutions that Amazon is working on is deploying electric vehicles by the end of the decade, which would put around 100,000 EVs to work. The company is already inventing and collaborating both internally and externally to reach the eco-friendly goal.
