About 1,816 employees from different Amazon offices walked out in protest against the new return-to-office policy
As a part of its new return-to-office policy mandated on May 1, Amazon is asking its employees to be back in offices at least three days per week, a decision that sparked anger amongst Amazon employees, even inciting mass walkout involving nearly 2000 employees working in different Amazon offices.
What added more fuel to this reaction were two massive layoff announcements earlier this year, which resulted in the loss of nearly 27,000 jobs, cutting down a massive percentage of Amazon’s total workforce.
According to Reuters, these employees at the Seattle office were protesting against both the massive layoffs and the company’s new return-to-work mandate.
“The walkout is on! About 1,816 employees have pledged to walk out around the world so far, with 873 in Seattle. Please join 1,816 of our coworkers (and counting) and pledge to walk out,” said leaders from the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) and Amazon’s Remote Advocacy Community.
“Employees need a say in decisions that affect our lives such as the return-to-work mandate, and how our work is being used to accelerate the climate crisis,” they added.
“This is about Amazon going in the wrong direction, and losing trust. We want what’s best for Amazon. Long-term thinking and employee voices are a significant component of the Day 1 culture that’s turned Amazon into such a successful company, and we’re trying to reignite it” said another community leader.
A number of different tech employees have also created an internal slack channel protesting against the mandate.
Replying to the protest and statements, Amazon sent out a statement saying that the company “is always listening and will continue to do so”.
“We’re happy with how the first month of having more people back in the office has been. There’s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and we’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices,” the company added.
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