Around 2,000 Amazon employees to stage walkout in protest against layoffs, WFO mandate

Amazon.com, along with several other tech companies, saw mass layoffs recently. A group of Amazon employees have decided to show protest against mass layoffs, work-from-office mandate and the company’s environmental impact. Nearly 2,000 Amazon employees are slated to stage a walkout.

As per the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a climate change advocacy group founded by Amazon workers, around 1,800 employees from all across the world, including 870 at the Seattle office, have pledged a walkout.

As per the statement by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) and Amazon's Remote Advocacy community leaders "The walkout is on! About 1,816 employees have pledged to walk out around the world so far, with 873 in Seattle. Please join 1,816 of our coworkers (and counting) and pledge to walk out."

They added, “Employees need a say in decisions that affect our lives such as the return-to-work mandate, and how our work is being used to accelerate the climate crisis.”

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Amazon mandates work from office

This protest comes after Amazon made it mandatory for employees to return to office. They are required to work from office at least three days a week, starting May 1. This was announced by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a blogpost. He stated, “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 also added that collaborating, learning and inventing is easier and more effective when we’re in person. Lastly, he stated, “Teams tend to be better connected to one another when they see each other in person more frequently.”

While some employees are happy to go back to office -- others not so much. An Amazon spokesperson told IANS, “We’re happy with how the first month of having more people back in the office has been. There’s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and we’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices.”

Amazon layoffs

Amazon has sacked over 27,000 employees across all departments globally since 2022. As per the company CEO, this is the biggest layoff in the history of the e-commerce platform.

Jassy spoke about the company-wide job cuts in a memo recently. He stated, “Over the last several months, we took a deep look across the company, business by business, invention by invention, and asked ourselves whether we had conviction about each initiative’s long-term potential to drive enough revenue, operating income, free cash flow, and return on invested capital. In some cases, it led to us shuttering certain businesses.”

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