Hundreds of Amazon Employees Walk Out Over the Company’s Climate Policies

Over 2,000 Amazon employees globally – half of which were in the US – walked out of the job yesterday protesting against the company’s climate change policies.

The e-commerce and cloud giant has fired thousands of workers this year and mandated corporate employees to work from the office for a minimum of three days a week – something which hasn’t gone well with many employees.

Amazon workers stage a walkout over its climate policies

The walkout was in part organized by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) which has been pressing the company to do more towards the climate.

It said that employees are walking out to express their “lack of trust in company leadership’s decision making.” Notably, in 2021, Andy Jassy took over as Amazon’s CEO from the company’s founder Jeff Bezos.

Meanwhile, AECJ tweeted, “As AECJ, we’re walking out to tell leadership that climate action cannot be sidelined. When will Amazon have all electric vehicles? When will it stop building pipelines for data centers? When will there be a real plan to reduce emissions instead of increase them every year?”

AMZN has set a net-zero carbon target by 2040

While Amazon has set itself a target of net-zero carbon by 2040 the protesting employees want the company to push forward the deadline to 2030. As part of its climate initiatives, Amazon is also adding 100,000 EDVs (electric delivery vehicles).

It has placed an order for the vans to Rivian – where it is also the biggest stockholder.

In a post on Medium, the AECJ wrote “We know when Amazon listens to employees, it moves in the right direction.”

It added, “We can imagine a world where Amazon’s innovation is directed towards the energy revolution, not just looking good on paper, and that world can only get built by workers who are ready to make change.”

Are Amazon’s climate actions falling short?

Notably, while large corporations like Amazon are taking measures to address climate change – most activists believe that their plans are piecemeal at best – and “greenwashing” at worst.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said that the company continues to “push hard” to reach carbon neutrality by 2040 while stressing “While we all would like to get there tomorrow, for companies like ours who consume a lot of power, and have very substantial transportation, packaging, and physical building assets, it’ll take time to accomplish.”

Amazon workers are also protesting against the return-to-office policy

AMZN has mandated employees to return to the office for at least three days a week effective last month.

In his blog post announcing the decision, Jassy said, that the company observed that “It’s easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture when we’re in the office together most of the time and surrounded by our colleagues.”

He added, “When you’re in-person, people tend to be more engaged, observant, and attuned to what’s happening in the meetings and the cultural clues being communicated.”

Some Amazon employees did not buy the argument and opposed the work-from-office policy.

Amazon has meanwhile defended the policy and Glasser said, “There’s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and we’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices.”

He however admitted, “We understand that it’s going to take time to adjust back to being in the office more and there are a lot of teams at the company working hard to make this transition as smooth as possible for employees.”

Amazon has laid off 27,000 employees

Amazon has laid off 27,000 corporate employees amid the current slowdown – along with several employees at the warehouses. The company, like fellow tech peers, overhired during the pandemic, and amid slowing growth it resorted to layoffs.

In absolute terms, Amazon’s layoffs were the highest among FAANG companies. However, in percentage terms, Meta Platforms leads the pack and has laid off a quarter of its workforce.

AMZN stock underperformed in 2022

Amazon stock fell by around 50% in 2022 and underperformed the markets by a wide margin. AMZN earned the dubious distinction of losing $1 trillion in its market cap from the peak. The company joined Meta Platforms and Tesla who have also lost their status as $1 trillion dollar companies.

However, Amazon has since regained its status as a trillion-dollar company. Last week, Nvidia too joined the coveted club – albeit briefly.

As for Amazon, its revenue growth fell to single digits last year as both the e-commerce and cloud operations are battling a severe slowdown.

Both businesses are also facing intense competition which is not making things any easier at a time when both consumers and businesses have cut back on spending – especially discretionary spending.

Analysts are bullish on Amazon stock

Wall Street analysts are in general bullish on Amazon stock and Citi and Goldman Sachs are among the brokerages that have listed it as a top 2023 pick. There is a caveat emptor warning here though and many of these brokerages had Amazon as a top 2022 pick as well. However, the stock continued to slide and underperformed the markets as well as FAANG peers last year.