There’s no doubt that the workers, advocates, and elected officials coming together to #MakeAmazonPay have captured the world’s imagination and are changing the way the public perceives Amazon.
As much as Amazon is trying, solidarity doesn’t scare easily. Since a group of strikers, labour, environment, tax, data, privacy, and anti-monopoly activists from every corner of our planet and every link in Amazon’s supply chain formed #MakeAmazonPay last year, a lot has changed. Yes, Amazon is still one of the world’s biggest e-commerce corporations. Yes, Jeff Bezos, the richest man on earth, was launched into space and Amazon workers paid for it. And yes, the corporation that controls so much of the way people shop wants to control its workers even more tightly.
But as thousands went on strike to demand better pay and treatment, thousands more supported their efforts. As investigations in India, the U.S. and Europe over Amazon’s abusive and anti-competitive business practices started to look more and more problematic for the tech giant, more elected officials began asking questions. As workers in Bessemer, Alabama, joined BAmazon—the first large-scale unionization drive at an Amazon warehouse in the United States—more workers found the courage to fight Amazon on the shopfloor…