TILBURY (UK): Climate activists targeted 15 Amazon depots across Europe on “Black Friday” and the world’s biggest e-commerce company also faced protests by workers and delivery drivers in Germany, France and Italy.
Amazon, based in Seattle, is facing criticism from climate activists who say excessive consumption harms the environment while an alliance of trade unions say the company does not pay workers enough nor enough tax to governments.
“Black Friday epitomises an obsession with overconsumption that is not consistent with a liveable planet,” the Extinction Rebellion group said after blocking 13 Amazon depots across the United Kingdom.
“Amazon and companies like it have capitalised on our desire for convenience and stoked rampant consumerism at the expense of the natural world,” it said.
The group also said it had blocked Amazon depots in Germany and the Netherlands. In Germany, the company’s biggest market after the United States, the Verdi union said around 2,500 employees went on strike at Amazon shipping centres in Rheinberg, Koblenz and Graben. In France, one of the country’s top labour unions, CGT, called for Amazon workers in the country to go on strike.