Amazon workers have revealed plans to hold strikes and protests on Black Friday in more than 30 countries including the UK.
The day of action, to be held on 24 November, was announced in Manchester at the first Make Amazon Pay summit of trade unionists and political leaders. On Thursday the online retailer revealed its profits had tripled to $9.9bn (about £8.2bn).
The US senator Bernie Sanders was in attendance in Manchester alongside Spain’s second deputy prime minister, Yolanda Diaz, and the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, encouraging Amazon workers to “join the global fight for their rights”.
Sanders told the summit: “No company is a better poster child for the corporate greed and arrogance that we are seeing in the US, the UK and throughout the world than Amazon.”
He highlighted the $143bn fortune of Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, the world’s third richest man, arguing that if he “could afford all of those mansions and all of those yachts and all of those rocket ships, he can afford to make sure that when workers at Amazon vote to form a union, that they receive a union contract that is fair and that is just”.
Last year, the coalition organised more than 135 strikes and protests across 35 countries on Black Friday. A spokesperson for the campaign group Progressive International, one of the organisers of the summit, said this year’s day of action would be even bigger in terms of impact.
More than 1,000 workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Coventry are already due to go on strike for four days in November, including on the Black Friday sales day.
The GMB union said the company “must urgently reconsider its priorities”, denouncing a planned pay rise for UK workers announced this week as “little comfort to the thousands of Amazon workers facing poverty pay … and workplace surveillance”.
Diaz told the summit: “It’s crucial to raise our voices and demand … that large companies respect … the communities where their workers operate; that they pay their fair share; and that they contribute more effectively to the primary challenge facing humanity today, the climate emergency.”
The Make Amazon Pay campaign has been co-organised by UNI Global Union and Progressive International, which includes more than 80 organisations working towards labour, tax, climate, data and racial justice, with more than 400 parliamentarians and tens of thousands of supporters from around the world.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “We always strive to be better, and while we know we’ve got more work to do, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made.
“We’ve created millions of good jobs, while helping create and support hundreds of thousands of small businesses around the world. We offer great pay and benefits, and provide a modern and safe working environment which anyone is welcome to see by taking a tour of one of our buildings.
“We continue to invest in the countries and communities where we operate, and we’re proud to be the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.”
• This article was amended on 29 October 2023 because an earlier version referred to profits of £9.9bn when that figure have been rendered in dollars.
