To 'make Amazon pay', Indian trade unions join Black Friday protest

Agitation part of global campaign against e-commerce firm

The words “underpaid”, “overworked”, “insufficient breaks” reverberated around the sites where Indian trade unions joined their counterparts from around the world to stage protests against “sweatshop” Amazon.

“My stint (with Amazon) was similar to working at a sweatshop… 10-hour long shifts, low wages, insufficient breaks, and leaves,” said a former employee at Amazon’s packing warehouse near Manesar, Haryana, who, along with several other former employees of the e-commerce giant, gathered at Jantar Mantar to join the “Make Amazon Pay” protest.

The agitation was part of the global action day called by the Make Amazon Pay coalition formed by over 80 trade unions, civil society organisations, and environmentalists. The year 2022 is the third that the coalition has organised a global day of action on Black Friday — one of the busiest shopping days of the year for Amazon.

Employees in dozens of countries — from Japan and Australia to India, the US and across Europe, are protesting against the company demanding better pay and working conditions.

The campaign has charged Amazon with “squeezing every last drop it can” from “workers, communities, and the planet” in the face of the cost-of-living scandal, global debt crisis, and climate emergency. It has demanded that the company pay its workers fairly and respect their right to join unions, pay its fair share of taxes, and commit to real environmental sustainability. 

Amazon has denied the allegations, saying that anyone could see for themselves by taking a tour of one of its sites. “These groups represent a variety of interests, and while we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing in each one of these areas you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously. We are inventing and investing significantly in all these areas, playing a significant role in addressing climate change with the Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040, continuing to offer competitive wages and great benefits, and inventing new ways to keep our employees safe and healthy in our operations network, to name just a few,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

The ex-employee quoted earlier in the story said, “We were forced to pack around 250 items within an hour. It is a suffocating hall without a place to sit. The breaks were so small that we could hardly eat anything.”

She said most workers at the centres were recruited by third-party organisations and had an employment contract of less than a month. “I had to leave the job within 40 days after I fell ill and my leave was not approved by her manager,” she said.

Amazon India operates from over 41 fulfilment centres in 13 cities in Maharashtra, and Telangana among other states. Amazon India’s overall fulfilment network spreads across a floor area of more than 10 million sq ft, which is more than the land size of 125 football fields.

Protests took place in Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. Several traders, hawkers, transport and gig workers’ unions participated in the demonstrations.

Dharmendra Kumar, one of the organisers and co-convenor Joint Action Committee against Foreign Retail and E-commerce, said, “Amazon is lowering working standards across the board in India. It is based on a business model, which is ecologically disastrous and economically unviable.”