Google, Amazon, Microsoft Employees to Walk Out for Climate Strike
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Employees from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have announced plans to walk out of their offices as part of a protest over global warming on September 20.
Fortune reports that employees from the Masters of the Universe including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have announced plans to walk out of their jobs on September 20 to participate in a global climate strike. The protests are set to take place in 150 countries around the world in an attempt to send a message to leaders who are meeting on September 23 for the 2019 Climate Action Summit, with more protest scheduled for September 27.
In a tweet, the Google Workers for Action on Climate Change group confirmed that it was organizing employees to attend the event but it has not revealed how many are expected to walk out in protest.
A former Google DeepMind researcher, Jack Kelly, now runs a nonprofit focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions called Open Climate Fix. Kelly tweeted his support for the walkout stating: “I’m so pleased this is happening. Google Cloud’s enthusiastic sales pitch to upstream oil & gas producers heavily influenced my decision to leave Google.”
1,235 Amazon employees are reportedly planning on walking out of their jobs marking the first major walkout at the firms Seattle headquarters during the company’s 25 years of operation. Although there have been complaints over Amazon worker conditions, none have resulted in as large a walkout as the climate change protest. Breitbart News reported in 2017:
At Amazon’s newest warehouse in Tilbury, Essex, Selby “found staff asleep on their feet, exhausted.” His firsthand account says that “those who could not keep up with the punishing targets faced the sack – and some who buckled under the strain had to be attended to by ambulance crews.” Selby is no slouch; yet even as an experienced marathon runner, he said days at the warehouse “left me feeling dizzy, and I worried I might keel over if I kept pushing myself as hard as I needed to meet my targets.”
Amazon employees are reportedly taking vacation days to protest in the march as it is not company sponsored. Employees from Microsoft are also reportedly planning to walk out according to the Microsoft Workers 4 Good Twitter account.
Sarah Read, a user experience researcher on Prime Video and spokesperson for Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, told Fortune: “What we wanted to see Amazon do was just prioritize this issue. We want Amazon to take ownership over its impact, to become a bold leader in the space, and influence the rest of the industry. We need to be setting the pace to be getting to zero emissions.”
Amazon said in a statement that it had taken a number of initiatives to improve sustainability and to “reduce the sources of human-induced climate change,” but workers are reportedly not impressed with Amazon’s efforts. “Amazon is one of the world’s most innovative companies. We pride ourselves on being a leader,” it said in a blog post. “But in the face of the climate crisis, a true leader is one who reaches zero emissions first, not one who slides in at the last possible moment.”
< >
Employees from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have announced plans to walk out of their offices as part of a protest over global warming on September 20.
Fortune reports that employees from the Masters of the Universe including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have announced plans to walk out of their jobs on September 20 to participate in a global climate strike. The protests are set to take place in 150 countries around the world in an attempt to send a message to leaders who are meeting on September 23 for the 2019 Climate Action Summit, with more protest scheduled for September 27.
In a tweet, the Google Workers for Action on Climate Change group confirmed that it was organizing employees to attend the event but it has not revealed how many are expected to walk out in protest.
A former Google DeepMind researcher, Jack Kelly, now runs a nonprofit focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions called Open Climate Fix. Kelly tweeted his support for the walkout stating: “I’m so pleased this is happening. Google Cloud’s enthusiastic sales pitch to upstream oil & gas producers heavily influenced my decision to leave Google.”
1,235 Amazon employees are reportedly planning on walking out of their jobs marking the first major walkout at the firms Seattle headquarters during the company’s 25 years of operation. Although there have been complaints over Amazon worker conditions, none have resulted in as large a walkout as the climate change protest. Breitbart News reported in 2017:
At Amazon’s newest warehouse in Tilbury, Essex, Selby “found staff asleep on their feet, exhausted.” His firsthand account says that “those who could not keep up with the punishing targets faced the sack – and some who buckled under the strain had to be attended to by ambulance crews.” Selby is no slouch; yet even as an experienced marathon runner, he said days at the warehouse “left me feeling dizzy, and I worried I might keel over if I kept pushing myself as hard as I needed to meet my targets.”
Amazon employees are reportedly taking vacation days to protest in the march as it is not company sponsored. Employees from Microsoft are also reportedly planning to walk out according to the Microsoft Workers 4 Good Twitter account.
Sarah Read, a user experience researcher on Prime Video and spokesperson for Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, told Fortune: “What we wanted to see Amazon do was just prioritize this issue. We want Amazon to take ownership over its impact, to become a bold leader in the space, and influence the rest of the industry. We need to be setting the pace to be getting to zero emissions.”
Amazon said in a statement that it had taken a number of initiatives to improve sustainability and to “reduce the sources of human-induced climate change,” but workers are reportedly not impressed with Amazon’s efforts. “Amazon is one of the world’s most innovative companies. We pride ourselves on being a leader,” it said in a blog post. “But in the face of the climate crisis, a true leader is one who reaches zero emissions first, not one who slides in at the last possible moment.”
