FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2020

Contact: amazonemployeesclimatejustice@gmail.com

Hundreds of Amazon Workers Defy Company Policy, Citing “Moral Responsibility”

Employees are protesting the company's recent threats of termination against employees who have criticized Amazon’s role in the climate crisis

“It’s our moral responsibility to speak up.”

(SEATTLE) - 357 Amazon tech workers posted public statements criticizing the company on a number of topics including its insufficient action on the climate crisis. The action was done in protest to Amazon’s newly updated external communications policy, which forbids employees from speaking about the company’s business without prior approval from management. The updated policy was unveiled one day after Amazon workers announced their participation in the September 2019 Global Climate Strike.

“As Amazon workers, we are responsible for not only the success of the company, but its impact as well. It’s our moral responsibility to speak up, and the changes to the communications policy are censoring us from exercising that responsibility. Now is not the time to silence employees, especially when the climate crisis poses such an unprecedented threat to humanity.” said Sarah Tracy, a Software Development Engineer at Amazon.

The action was organized by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), which has been pushing the company to take actions that scientists say are needed to address the climate crisis. In November, members of AECJ were warned that they could be fired if they continue to publicly criticize the company’s climate policies. Despite these warnings, workers decided to push onwards and post public statements in protest.

“This clearly shows that as Amazon tech workers have reflected upon what is the right thing to do at this moment, they decided that they needed to keep speaking out,” said Victoria Liang, Software Development Engineer. “Every person who shared a statement had to decide for themselves that whatever the consequences, they needed to stand up for what they felt was right. The climate crisis is just that urgent. We just couldn't be silenced by these policies on issues of such moral weight."

Over the past year, Amazon employees have grown increasingly vocal over their company’s large carbon footprint, partnerships with fossil fuel companies, and lack of urgency in reducing emissions. Last spring, more than 8,700 workers signed an open letter to Jeff Bezos urging him to take bold action. In September, thousands walked off the job as part of the youth-led Global Climate Strike. Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video in support of the workers’ demands and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has signaled her support as well.

"I and others tried for years to raise issues via internal channels but it didn’t work. I used to think that Amazon's leaders had a plan to address the company’s climate impact and I learned that they didn’t. In fact, I learned that they were partnering with oil & gas companies like BP to get more oil out of the ground faster,” said Eliza Pan, a former Program Manager at Amazon who worked at Amazon for over 5 years. “It wasn’t until employees began speaking out that we finally saw significant action from Amazon. Companies will keep making the changes that are necessary only if employees continue speaking up. It’s not going to happen otherwise.”

"When I raised climate change concerns while an employee, around AWS carbon footprint, I was met with very little support for change, and with the standard PR lines about how seriously Amazon was taking the issue. Nothing changed until employees began speaking out,” said Paul Johnston, a former Senior Developer Advocate at Amazon who left the company in large part because of Amazon's lack of significant climate action.

Amazon’s response to the employees speaking out has been mixed. The company agreed to publish its carbon footprint for the first time last year and, in September, in response to thousands of employees walking out, announced plans to be net carbon zero by 2040. However, employees called for Amazon to achieve zero emissions by 2030, which climate scientists say is necessary to halt catastrophic warming, not net zero by 2040. Amazon has also rejected the employees’ demand to stop providing fossil fuel companies with machine learning technology to accelerate oil and gas extraction. And in October, Amazon began warning employees that speaking out further would risk termination.

“Workers on the Sustainability Team have dedicated their careers to literally saving the world. We have so much gratitude for their work, and it’s so important for us to publicly cheer what our coworkers have accomplished. But I’ve spoken with more than one who left that team because the big ideas we need right now did not have the support of leadership,” said Weston Fribley, a Software Development Engineer. “This is not about them, this is about policies that prevent workers from speaking the truth about the entire company’s role in the climate crisis. Only after we spoke up publicly did Amazon take this huge positive shift with the Climate Pledge.”

Other tech companies have also responded to tech worker pressure, with Microsoft announcing earlier this year its goal to beat Amazon’s pledge by being “carbon negative” by 2030.

“I was shocked and disappointed to hear that Amazon was threatening to fire employees for speaking out,” said Nolan Woodle, an Associate Contracts Manager at Amazon. “I’m proud to work at Amazon, but policies that silence employees who are challenging us to do better runs counter to our own leadership principles. When there is an issue of such importance, we have to be able to talk about it. Silencing employees is simply not the right approach.”

The protest is the largest action by employees since Amazon began threatening to fire workers for speaking out about Amazon’s role in the climate crisis. It signals that employees are convinced that the only right thing to do at this time is to keep speaking up. AECJ has continued to call on Amazon to commit to zero emissions by 2030, stop developing AWS products and services to accelerate oil and gas extraction, and end funding of climate-denying politicians, lobbyists, and think tanks.

“As someone who grew up in Australia, the devastating reality of our climate crisis has become all too clear as I watch my homeland burn and millions of native animals being killed,” said Mark Hiew, a Senior Marketing Manager at Amazon. “This is not the time for silencing voices. We need policies that welcome more open discourse, more problem-solving, and more urgent and concerted action about climate change and its causes.”