The article “Protesters hit Amazon buildings on Black Friday” addressed the protests which occurred at Amazon buildings in the UK, US and Europe on Black Friday. These protests were led by the movement of “Make Amazon Pay” which has been perpetrated by labour unions as well as equality and environmental groups. This movement’s purpose is to protest seek out improved pay, end employee surveillance as well as for Amazon to add its own labour unions. Moreover, the movement also seeks to extend sick leave and improve COVID-19 tracking and reporting as well as to pay taxes ethically without using loopholes. Additionally, these protests are also in response to an increased number of EMS calls to Amazon factories where employees have required medical assistance.
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-workers-in-europe-mark-black-friday-with-we-are-not-robots-protests/
In my opinion, Amazon needs to change its business model and become more inclusive to those who work for them rather than being so robotic and focusing exclusively on mass productivity. Since Amazon warehouses are not unionized workers are not allowed to strike which adds another element of unethical leadership on behalf of Amazon as it limits the ability of employees to raise concerns they have with the company. When you think of Amazon, you never think of the people behind the scenes and how your products were handled by human beings but rather the electronic process you go through to make your purchase and it being strategically across the world by their computer system to get to your doorstep. Amazon should add an element of human life and be more appreciative and outspoken about how crucial the workforce they have is to them as well as make it more appealing to work for them to limit the connotations and comparisons that have been made with their warehouses and sweatshops. They should also add ad campaigns that show Amazon workers happy to be there and speaking into the camera commenting on the benefits Amazon has brought them and how it is a good and productive working environement in order to improve their global perception which has been tarnished in the past few years due to claims such as the ones made in this article.
References
BBC. (2021, November 26). Protesters hit Amazon buildings on Black Friday. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59419572
Awesome post and idea. I suppose this improvement has to be done in many other companies as well, Amazon here is just an example of bad consequences.