Make Amazon Pay Day 2025”: Global Strikes and Protests Confront Amazon

Make Amazon Pay Day 2025”: Global Strikes and Protests Confront Amazon

Thousands of workers and civil society allies in dozens of countries unite to demand Amazon pay its workers — and pay for the damage it inflicts on people and the planet

From November 28 to December 1, 2025, Amazon workers, unions and allies across six continents will join forces under the banner #Make Amazon Pay to strike and protest in global action co-convened by UNI Global Union and Progressive International.

From New Delhi to Montreal and beyond, thousands will take to the streets, picket lines, warehouses, offices, and data centers  to Make Amazon Pay for labour abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy.

“Amazon, Jeff Bezos and their political allies are betting on a techno-authoritarian future, but this Make Amazon Pay Day, workers everywhere are saying: enough,” said Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union.“For years, Amazon has squashed workers’ right to democracy on the job through a union and the backing of authoritarian political figures. Its model is deepening inequality and undermining the fundamental rights of workers to organize, bargain collectively, and demand safe, fair workplaces.”

“Amazon is no longer just a retailer — it is a pillar of a new authoritarian order built on surveillance and exploitation,” said David Adler, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International. “From ICE raids to the repression of Palestinians, Amazon’s technologies are woven into systems of violence worldwide. But Make Amazon Pay shows that workers and communities can confront this power — and build a future based on dignity and democracy instead.”

“During the heatwaves, the warehouse feels like a furnace — people faint, but the targets never stop,” said Neha Singh, an Amazon worker in Manesar, India.” Even if we fainted, we couldn’t take a day off & go home. If we took that day off, our pay would be cut, & if we took three days off, they would fire us. Amazon treats us as expendable. We are joining Make Amazon Pay to demand the most basic rights: safety, dignity, and the chance to go home alive.”

“Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is a clear-cut example of Big Tech’s expanding, destructive impact on people and the planet. The Make Amazon Pay movement is letting the world know that Amazon is at the heart of the deepening alliance between Big Tech and repressive regimes. Billionaire-owned Big Tech companies like Amazon are an increasing risk to our rights, while they repress dissent and wreck the planet. It’s time to resist Big Tech’s overreach into our lives and to make Amazon pay!” —Sanna Ghotbi, Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace International.

“Amazon profits from the labour of Bangladeshi garment workers but refuses to sign the Accord that keeps those workers safe,” said Nazma Akter, President of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation. “More than a decade after Rana Plaza, there is no excuse. If Amazon wants to operate in Bangladesh, it must sign the Accord, protect workers’ lives, and respect their right to organise. Anything less is exploitation.”

Now in its sixth year, the campaign is taking direct aim at what organizers call a “techno-authoritarian future,” an emerging system where Big Tech and far-right forces merge to consolidate power, undermine democracy and erode workers’ rights.

Global Actions Across 30+ Countries

Key actions include:

• India – Thousands will rally in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and 20 other cities demanding fair wages, safe conditions, and protection from extreme heat. Coordinated by AIWU.

• Canada– CSN to rally against Amazon in Montreal. 

• Germany – Strikes at Amazon warehouses coordinated by the union ver.di.

• United States –Cyber Monday protests across Chicago (IL), Newark (NJ), New York City (NY), Oakland (CA), San Bernardino (CA), and Washington, D.C. People will rally against Amazon’s contracts which power Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s raids. As Amazon enjoys one of its highest sales volume seasons of the year, community members will demand that the corporation end its complicity in Trump’s detention and deportation agenda by serving as the technological backbone for ICE’s surveillance machine. Coordinated by the Athena Coalition. Seattle: AECJ letter drop: At the start of the holiday season after Amazon’s recent mass layoffs, over 1,000 Amazon corporate employees published an open letter exposing the harms caused by their company leadership’s AI rollout and development. US Earlier this week in Philadelphia—On Monday, November 24th workers, community supporters gather outside of the Philadelphia Center City store to demand that Amazon-Whole Foods provide livable wages, affordable health care, and respect in the workplace. Workers delivered a letter to Amazon-Whole Foods leadership demanding recognition of their union on the one-year anniversary of their election filing, which Amazon-Whole Foods is trying to overturn.

• Bangladesh – Garment worker marches in Dhaka calling out supply chain exploitation.

• Indonesia –Jakarta ASPEK Union protest

• Australia members of UnionsWA is joining SDA, TWU and MEAA for another national rally against Amazon who is relentlessly eroding the industrial conditions that we have all fought so hard for in this country.

• Taiwan – Greenpeace Taiwan activity

• Nepal- Protest in Katmandu

• Palestine- Postal Workers protest Amazon collaboration with the occupation.

• Brazil – Franco da Rocha

• Colombia – COE Protest in Bogotá

• Denmark— Greenpeace Denmark 

• Luxembourg – Greenpeace Luxembourg and Greenpeace International activity

• South Africa— Cape Town, Save Our Sacred Land action at Amazon’s South Africa Headquarter built on indigenous land.

• Digital and creative protests – Projection actions, online solidarity events, and coordinated campaigns targeting Amazon’s headquarters.

Amazon sits “at the heart of the machine” driving the fusion of corporate greed, surveillance, union busting and far-right authoritarianism. Together, they fuse the ruthless pursuit of profit with systems of control and violence. It is an assault on democracy and freedom in the workplace and beyond. 

Already one of the most powerful corporations in history, Amazon funded Trump’s inauguration and got what it paid for: support for union busting, deregulation, and the rollback of environmental protections. Amazon’s most recent filing showed that it paid $1.4 billion less in taxes than same period last year as a result of the corporate tax cuts passed earlier this year. This comes as Trump is going around Congress to lower corporate and billionaire taxes even further.

Campaign organizers warn that Amazon’s expansion of automation and artificial intelligence threatens to replace hundreds of thousands of workers, while its vast data centres drain energy and water resources, worsening the climate crisis.

Across the world, workers have also been able to push back against Amazon’s dominance. In Canada, the long-running effort to organize Amazon’s workforce has achieved a breakthrough. This year, the warehouse workers in Delta, British Columbia secured union certification with Uniforwhen the provincial labour board ruled that Amazon had unlawfully interfered in the organizing drive. The British Columbia Labour Relations Board ruled that Amazon’s actions during the organizing campaign at its YVR5 facility, including a rapid hiring surge and anti-union messaging, compromised the fairness of the vote. As a result, the board granted automatic certification under provincial labour law.  The ruling makes the Delta warehouse the first Amazon facility in Canada to secure union representation.

In Australia, organized labour has turned a policy battle into a political victory. The federal government’s new “ethical conduct” clause in public procurement rules—won through sustained union campaigning by the SDA union—requires agencies to assess companies’ labour rights records before awarding contracts. The measure, effective November 17, could exclude firms accused of worker exploitation or legal violations from billions in government tenders. 

In the United States, regulators have delivered their own rebuke. In a landmark case, Amazon agreed to pay US$2.5 billion (€2.3bn) to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it deceived customers into signing up for Prime memberships and obstructed them from cancelling. The FTC said the settlement includes $1 billion in civil penalties—the largest such fine in its history for a rule violation—and $1.5 billion in refunds for affected consumers.

The Make Amazon Pay coalition unites more than 80 organizations, including UNI Global Union, Progressive International, Greenpeace International, and Tax Justice Network. 

Together, we demand that Amazon:

1. Pay workers fairly and respect their right to organize.

2. Pay its fair share of taxes and end global tax avoidance.

3. Pay for its environmental destruction by committing to real sustainability and accountability.

About Make Amazon Pay

Launched in 2020 by UNI Global Union and the Progressive International, Make Amazon Pay Day has become a worldwide day of resistance held annually from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. The campaign brings together workers, environmentalists, tax justice advocates, and digital rights defenders to challenge Amazon’s abuses and demand systemic change.