Amazon employees walked out at the company’s Seattle headquarters, to highlight their concerns over recent layoffs, a return to office policy, and the company’s environmental impact.
More than 2,000 Amazon employees worldwide walked off the job after 1 p.m., Pacific Time, on May 31, of which 1,000 of them gathered next to the Spheres, the landmark entrance to the online tech giant’s Seattle headquarters, according to employee groups behind the protest.
Other employees said they planned to participate in the protest virtually.
The company told CNBC that it estimated that only 300 employees participated in the Seattle walkout, out of its 65,000 corporate and tech employees in the Puget Sound region and the roughly 350,000 workers worldwide.
Amazon Employees Upset at Returning to the Office
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), an organization founded by employees that partially organized the walk out, has repeatedly pressured the company’s management over its climate stance.
“As AECJ, we’re walking out to tell leadership that climate action cannot be sidelined. When will Amazon have all electric vehicles? When will it stop building pipelines for data centers? When will there be a real plan to reduce emissions instead of increase them every year?” the employee group, posted on Twitter on May 23.
The climate change advocacy group said that employees would walk out to highlight a lack of trust in “senior leadership’s decision-making.”
Amazon also recently carried out the largest layoffs in its 29-year history, slashing 27,000 positions across its cloud computing, advertising, retail, and other departments, since last fall.
On May 1, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy ordered corporate office employees to return to their desks at least three days a week, cutting back on the remote work arrangements that employees had gotten used to since the pandemic.
Jassy said in February, that the company had made the decision after reviewing work habits during the pandemic, noting that employees tended to be more productive working together in person.
Workers on the walkout held signs with slogans like “Amazon strive harder” and “Earth’s best employer? Stop the PR and listen to us,” reported CNBC.
By Bryan Jung
