More than 1,900 employees had pledged to protest globally,
according to the organizers, an activist group known as Amazon
Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ).
Amazon said it had not observed actions other than in Seattle.
The walkout follows moves that took Amazon "in the wrong
direction," AECJ has said. Among them, the company recently
eliminated a goal to make all Amazon shipments net zero for
carbon emissions by 2030, though it still has a broader pledge
on climate for a decade later.
Amazon also announced some 27,000 role cuts in recent months, or
9% of its corporate workforce, a shift for a company that long
touted its job creation. A return-to-office mandate by May 1
caused confusion for some staff as to whether they needed to
relocate homes nearer to work or whether they would be laid off
beforehand.
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said the
company is pushing hard to cut its carbon emissions.
"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," he said. "We
remain on track to get to 100% renewable energy by 2025."
He added that Amazon listens to employee feedback and was happy
with the collaboration that arose from its return-to-office
policy.
There have been other protests in recent years, including in
2019, when Amazon workers were among hundreds of employees of
large technology companies to join marches in San Francisco and
Seattle, saying their employers were too slow to tackle global
warming.
(Reporting by Matt McKnight in Seattle, Tiyashi Datta in
Bengaluru and Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, California; Editing
by David Gregorio)
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