More than 300 employees of Amazon signed their name on Sunday criticism against the American giant of online distribution, including its environmental policy, in defiance of the rules of procedure which requires prior authorization from the hierarchy.
The publication of these testimonials on the Medium site was organized by the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), which pushes the company to go further in its mitigation plan announced with great publicity in September. Group members have publicly criticized the company, and several have been called to order by management, at the risk of dismissal.
"Protest against the settlement"
"This action was taken to protest against the recently refreshed regulation which prohibits employees from speaking publicly about the company's activities without prior authorization," said a press release from AECJ.
“As Amazon employees we are responsible not only for the success of the business but also for its impact. It is our moral responsibility to speak out and the changes in the regulations prevent us from exercising this responsibility, ”writes Sarah Tracy, computer engineers at Amazon.
It is common for companies to demand - like Amazon - a duty of restraint from their employees when it comes to publicly discussing their activities and even more so to openly questioning them. Amazon had nearly 650,000 permanent employees at the end of 2018, according to the company's annual report.
If the environment is the subject of many critics posted on Sunday, Amazon is also criticized for other activities such as the provision of its artificial intelligence capabilities for companies in the oil sector.
Carbon footprint
Amazon is often criticized for its carbon footprint because of the energy consumption of its huge server farms for its very lucrative activities in the “cloud” (cloud computing).
And of course the company has built its success on a huge logistical network of road transport to ensure faster and faster deliveries, which generates a lot of greenhouse gases, the main culprits of climate change.
On September 19, Jeff Bezos, founder of the company and incidentally the richest man in the world, made public commitments in terms of the environment, promising in particular that Amazon will reach carbon neutrality in 2040. This is insufficient, according to the AECJ which claims to arrive there from 2030.
Mark Hiew, director of marketing at Amazon, says, "Now is not the time to silence people. We need rules that encourage more open discourse, more solutions and more determined and concerted action on climate change and its causes ”.
Amazon did not respond to an AFP response request, but a Washington Post article (owned by Jeff Bezos and widely echoed by the EYCS) quotes a spokesperson Drew Herdener, who explains Amazon encourages employees to express themselves, but internally through different platforms available to them.
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