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"We are joining Make Amazon Pay to demand the most basic rights: safety, dignity, and the chance to go home alive," said one Amazon worker from India.
Amazon workers and their allies worldwide took to the streets on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, to protest the e-commerce behemoth's exploitation of workers, relentless union-busting, contributions to the worsening climate emergency, and plans to replace employees en masse with robots.
“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.”
From Germany to Bangladesh, thousands of workers walked off the job on Friday and marched against Amazon's labor practices to push for better wages, working conditions, and union protections. Last month, Amazon reported over $21 billion in profits for the third quarter of 2025—a 38% increase compared to the same time last year.
“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, referring to the company's productivity quotas. "Even if we fainted, we couldn’t take a day off and go home. If we took that day off, our pay would be cut, and if we took three days off, they would fire us. Amazon treats us as expendable."
"We are joining Make Amazon Pay," said Singh, "to demand the most basic rights: safety, dignity, and the chance to go home alive.”
HAPPENING NOW 🌎 Amazon workers and their allies in 38 countries around the world are striking and protesting to #MakeAmazonPay. pic.twitter.com/srMRsymCh7
— Progressive International (@ProgIntl) November 28, 2025
Make Amazon Pay is an alliance of labor unions and advocacy groups organizing to stop Amazon from "squeezing workers, communities and the planet."
The 2025 strikes and protests, which organizers described as the largest mobilization against Amazon to date, mark the sixth consecutive year of global actions organized by the coalition.
The strike in Germany was characterized as the largest in Amazon's history, with around 3,000 workers expected to join picket lines across the country. The union representing Amazon workers in the United States voiced solidarity with striking German workers in a social media post on Friday, crediting them with "inspiring the global Amazon worker movement for over a decade."
Amazon Teamsters stand in solidarity with our German Amazon colleagues today as you engage in courageous strike action. To the long-time strikers - you’ve been inspiring the global Amazon worker movement for over a decade. To those who are joining the growing movement for the… pic.twitter.com/42ul1bbFb5
— Amazon Teamsters (@amazonteamsters) November 28, 2025
"Across the world, Amazon workers are walking off the job, marching through their cities, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with communities to demand what every worker deserves: fair wages, safe conditions, the right to organize—and a future not dictated by algorithms and billionaires," Progressive International, a member of the alliance, said Friday.
"But the target is not only a company. It is the emerging system that Amazon now anchors: a techno-authoritarian order that fuses the power of Big Tech with the prerogatives of the far right—from Trump’s ICE raids to Israel’s genocide in Gaza," the group added. "This week's actions point toward another horizon. One in which supply chains become sites of struggle, not submission; where warehouse workers link arms with tech workers, garment workers, Indigenous communities, and migrants; where a global labor movement is capable of confronting a global system of power."
The fashion industry has thrived for decades while "failing to ensure that the right of garment workers to unionize and collectively bargain is respected."
With clothing companies that will be offering discounted Black Friday deals this week relying heavily on the labor of tens of millions underpaid and overworked garment workers across the Global South, two reports by the human rights group Amnesty International make the case that ensuring these employees are afforded the right to organize their workplaces is key to ending worker exploitation across the fashion industry.
The organization interviewed 64 garment workers in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan from 2023-24, including 12 union organizers and labor rights activists, for its report titled Stitched Up, about the denial of freedom of association for workers in the four countries.
Two-thirds of the workers Amnesty interviewed were women, reflecting the fact that the garment workforce is mainly female, and many described the long hours, poverty wages, and abusive working conditions that the industry is known for.
But beyond that, the workers told Amnesty about the "climate of fear" they work in, with all but two of the 13 workers in Bangladesh reporting they had faced threats of retaliation at work if they joined or tried to form a union.
More than two dozen union organizers in the four countries described harassment, dismissal, and threats that they and their colleagues had faced for organizing their workplace.
“When workers raise their voices, they are ignored. When they try to organize, they are threatened and sacked. And finally, when workers protest, they are beaten, shot at, and arrested,” said a labor rights activist identified as Taufiq in Bangladesh.
The report notes that "restrictions on the right of workers to organize into trade unions and collectively speak out against human rights abuses at work are a violation of the fundamental right to freedom of association and collective bargaining," which are affirmed by the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said that "an unholy alliance of fashion brands, factory owners, and the governments of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka is propping up an industry known for its endemic human rights abuses" and allowing mistreatment of workers to continue while barring employees from working together to fight for better conditions and pay.
"By failing to ensure that the right of garment workers to unionize and collectively bargain is respected, the industry has thrived for decades on the exploitation of a grossly underpaid, overworked, and mostly female workforce,” said Callamard.
The governments of the four countries have failed to provide a living wage to garment workers—instead competing to attract the investment of clothing companies by setting the lowest wages possible. Almost all of the workers interviewed by Amnesty said their wages did not cover their families' living costs.
Many of the workers also reported that they were hired with "informal" work contracts, with no formal mechanisms for reporting workplace abuses, including violence and sexual harassment.
“I was touched physically and abused verbally. No one in management would listen to my complaints then I asked other women to organize. I was threatened with dismissal many times,” Sumaayaa, a worker and organizer from Lahore, Pakistan, told Amnesty.
The governments in question have done nothing to counter such precarious working arrangements, with officials establishing "Special Economic Zones" (SEZ) in Bangladesh and "Free Trade Zones" in Sri Lanka—areas where administrative measures place "often insurmountable barriers against union communication and access to workers."
Instead of affording workers the right to freedom of association in SEZ's, officials in Bangladesh encourage workers to form "welfare associations or committees, which have limited ability to collectively organize."
Alongside Stitched Up, Amnesty released the companion report Abandoned by Fashion: The Urgent Need for Fashion Brands to Champion Workers’ Rights, which details top brands' responses to an international survey on the rights of garment workers to organize their workplaces.
All of the fashion brands and retailers surveyed, including Adidas, ASOS, Shein, PVH, and Marks and Spencer, had "codes of conduct for suppliers, human rights policies, or principles, which affirmed the company’s commitment to workers’ right to freedom of association."
But the survey revealed "a limited commitment to implementing these policies at the factory level, especially in proactively promoting union organizing and ensuring human rights commitments and the ability of workers to exercise this right were reflected in their choice of sourcing location."
Amnesty found very few independent trade unions operating within the companies' supply chains in the four countries.
Adidas reported that 9.5% of its suppliers in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have unions. H&M works with 145 factories in Bangladesh, 29 of which had trade unions. Of 31 factories in Bangladesh, none had unions, and eight out of 93 facilities in India had them.
In the case of the clothing company Next, just 23 of the 167 apparel factories the company works with in Bangladesh had independent unions, while 134 had less empowered "committees."
"These findings provide a very stark indication of the low levels of unionization within the supply chains of major fashion companies in South Asia," reads the report. "They reveal the impact of the failures of the governments of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to protect and promote garment workers’ rights in relation to the right to freedom of association. Our research shows how all four states have effectively denied this right to garment workers, including by creating disproportionate or arbitrary barriers to registration, unionization, and strike action, and by failing in their responsibility to protect workers, union members, and officials from corporate abuse including discrimination, harassment, and dismissal."
Amnesty International made a number of recommendations to fashion companies, including:
“The need of the hour is to build a human rights-respecting sourcing strategy for the global garment industry," she said. "Freedom of association is key to tackling the abuse of workers’ rights. It must be protected, advanced, and championed.”
"When we announced our intention to protest today, our management attempted to stop us in multiple ways. We want to say to Amazon—you could not stop us today, you cannot stop us in the future," said one union leader.
Amazon workers and their allies are participating in a series of global actions aimed at holding the online retailer "accountable for labor abuses, environmental degradation, and threats to democracy," according to the labor group UNI Global Union.
Dubbed "Make Amazon Pay," the campaign is set to last from November 29 to December 2 and will include strikes and protests across six continents, according to the group—and is timed to disrupt Black Friday (or "Make Amazon Pay Day") and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest online shopping days of the year.
"When we announced our intention to protest today, our management attempted to stop us in multiple ways. We want to say to Amazon—you could not stop us today, you cannot stop us in the future," said the general secretary of the Amazon India Workers Union during a demonstration held in India on Friday.
Make Amazon Pay Day was launched in 2020 by UNI Global Union and the left-leaning movement group Progressive International. It has expanded each subsequent year, say organizers, and today the coalition behind Make Amazon Pay Day brings together a wide range of groups, including climate, racial, and economic justice organizations.
According to Progressive International, actions taking place as part of the campaign include but are not limited to: strikes at multiple warehouses in Germany; direct actions in French towns and cities led by the justice group Attac; a rally in India by Amazon workers over unsafe working conditions; and a protest by trade unionists at an Amazon call center. All told, actions are supposed to take place in over 30 countries.
"This fight is global. Every picket, every strike, every action of solidarity matters. Another world is possible, and we are building that world one strike, one conversation at a time. Together, we are unstoppable," said Christy Hoffman, UNI Global Union's general secretary, on Friday while speaking to striking workers in Germany.
The campaign alleges that Amazon "squeezes" workers, communities, and the planet. For example, "while tripling profits in early 2024, Amazon surveils and pressures drivers and warehouse workers at the risk of severe physical and mental harm," according to campaign materials.
Responding to the campaign, an Amazon U.S. spokesperson told Newsweek: "The fact is at Amazon we provide great pay, great benefits, and great opportunities—all from day one. We've created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world, and counting, and we provide a modern, safe, and engaging workplace whether you work in an office or at one of our operations buildings."
Online, progressive political figures lent their support to the effort.
"Today, I stand with Amazon workers in over 30 countries around the world striking and protesting to #MakeAmazonPay," wrote Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the British Labour Party.
"While billionaire Bezos tours the world on his $500m yacht, Amazon workers in 20+ countries are rising up this Black Friday to demand fair wages, union rights, and climate action. Amazon must pay its fair share and respect workers. I stand with #MakeAmazonPay," chimed in U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on X.
Following the inaugural Make Amazon Pay campaign in 2020, hundreds of lawmakers from dozens of countries endorsed the effort with an open letter to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
"The world knows that Amazon can afford to pay its workers, its environmental cost, and its taxes. And yet—time and again—you have dodged and dismissed your debts to workers, societies, and the planet," the letter alleged. U.S. signatories included Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
From start to stop, the shopping stampede known as Black Friday exposes the deep failures of our economic system.
Black Friday, once just a day to kick off holiday shopping, has evolved into a global phenomenon of massive sales, frenzied spending, and record-breaking profits for corporations. But beneath the allure of door-buster deals lies a complex web of wealth inequality, labor exploitation, and environmental damage. This annual shopping spree is more than a rush for discounts—it reflects systemic issues in our economy and society.
Retailers carefully orchestrate Black Friday sales to create a sense of urgency. Promotions like “limited-time offers” or “flash sales” are designed to trigger FOMO (fear of missing out), leading consumers to purchase items they often don’t need. According to a 2022 survey by the National Retail Federation, Americans spent over $9.12 billion online on Black Friday, a 2.3% increase from the previous year. Despite rising living costs, this cycle of compulsive consumption continues, fueled by psychological manipulation and relentless marketing.
This system benefits large corporations disproportionately. For instance, Amazon’s Black Friday sales accounted for 17% of total U.S. online shopping in 2022, reinforcing its dominance in retail. However, while corporations and shareholders celebrate record profits, consumers often feel trapped in debt. Total U.S. consumer credit card debt exceeded $1 trillion in 2023, a stark reminder of the financial strain induced by events like Black Friday.
The people enabling these shopping extravaganzas—warehouse employees, retail workers, and delivery drivers—often face the most significant exploitation. Many of these jobs are low-wage, part-time, and seasonal, offering little stability.
• In Amazon warehouses, workers are pushed to their limits, with fulfillment centers reporting injury rates nearly twice the industry average.
On Black Friday, the situation worsens. Retail employees are forced to work long hours, often on Thanksgiving, sacrificing time with family. Meanwhile, the CEOs of major retailers see their earnings skyrocket.
For example, in 2022, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon earned $25.7 million, while the company’s median worker pay was just $27,136—a CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 933:1.
This stark disparity highlights a broader trend: while worker productivity has increased by 61.8% since 1979, wages have grown by only 17.5%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Black Friday encapsulates this imbalance, as the wealthiest continue profiting from the labor and spending of those struggling to make ends meet.
Major corporations like Walmart, Amazon, and Target dominate Black Friday, consolidating their power over the retail market. In 2023 alone, Amazon’s global Black Friday sales surpassed $10 billion, bolstering the wealth of its largest shareholders, including founder Jeff Bezos.
• Bezos’s net worth grew by $14 billion during the 2023 holiday season, underscoring the widening wealth gap.
• Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of U.S. households control just 1% of the nation’s wealth, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2023 data.
Black Friday serves as a microcosm of this inequality. Consumers spend billions to fuel corporate profits, while low-wage workers and underpaid suppliers see little to no benefit.
Black Friday’s environmental consequences are staggering. The demand for fast, cheap goods drives overproduction, resulting in waste, pollution, and resource depletion. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 12 million tons of furniture and clothing are discarded annually in the U.S., much purchased during sales events like Black Friday.
The transportation of goods contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, in 2022, global shipping for Black Friday orders generated an estimated 6 million tons of CO₂, equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.2 million cars.
The problem is compounded by the “planned obsolescence” of many products, particularly electronics. Items like smartphones and TVs are replaced frequently due to new models and sales, leading to an e-waste crisis. The Global E-Waste Monitor reported that 57.4 million metric tons of electronic waste were discarded worldwide in 2021, with less than 20% adequately recycled.
Black Friday exposes the cracks in our economic system: unchecked consumerism, wealth concentration, labor exploitation, and environmental degradation. Addressing these issues requires systemic change and individual action.
1. Buy Less, Buy Better: Support local businesses, invest in quality over quantity, and resist the pressure to buy unnecessary items. Adopting sustainable shopping habits can reduce waste and promote ethical consumption.
2. Advocate for Workers: Push for higher wages and better working conditions. Organizations like the Fight for $15 campaign continue to call for a living wage for retail and service workers.
3. Support Environmental Initiatives: Consider the environmental impact of your purchases. Look for brands prioritizing sustainable materials and ethical labor practices.
Black Friday should no longer be a day of exploitation and excess. Instead, let’s reimagine it as an opportunity to reflect on our values and work toward a fairer, more sustainable future where people and the planet take precedence over profits.
Marking a convergence of public anger and dissent on the annual shopping bonanza of "Black Friday," people drawing the connection between American consumer culture, economic disparity, and racial injustice are targeting retail stores and malls Friday to voice ongoing critiques of the events and underlying issues in Ferguson, Missouri now galvanizing outrage across the country.
Organized by Blackout for Human Rights-- "a network of concerned artists, activists, and citizens" co-founded by Ryan Coogler, award-winning director of the film Fruitvale Station, which explores the 2008 police killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland-- the campaign called for a nationwide shopping boycott on the day after Thanksgiving to oppose the "staggering level of human rights violations against fellow Americans" by law enforcement officers too rarely held accountable. In a statement on the need for Friday's protests, the group explained:
We have witnessed enough. An affront to any citizen's human rights threatens the liberty of all. So, we participate in one of the most time honored American traditions: dissent. We demand an immediate end to the brutal treatment and inhumane killings of our loved ones; the lives of our friends, our parents and our children have value and should be treated with respect. Our right to life is secured not only by our humanity, but is protected by law both federally and internationally by the Constitution of the United States of America and the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Under the hashtag #BlackOutBlackFriday, organizers and participants in the St. Louis area and nationwide expressed the need to connect the dots between consumerism, institutionalized racism, and inequality:
And The Guardian reports:
Beginning on Thanksgiving night, dozens of activists turned up at major retailers around the St Louis area with protest signs. They chanted "Hands up, don't shoot!" as shoppers whizzed past in search of heavily-discounted TVs and vacuums.
The demonstrations, staged at an area Target and multiple Walmart stores, were brief and peaceful. As of mid-morning, there had been no reports of arrests related to the protests. In at least one instance, protesters were ordered by police to leave, and they did so peacefully, Reuters reported. More protests were expected throughout the day on Friday.
Th boycott was an extension of the Black Lives Matter campaign, meant to empower black voices by demonstrating their purchasing power.
As part of the campaign, organizers released several videos. The first, titled 'The Time Has Come,' was used to promote Friday's boycott and articulates the need for a serious engagement with the issue of police brutality and race:
#BlackoutBlackFriday: The Time Has Come'#BlackoutBlackFriday: The Time Has Come' is our latest video that we've produced to raise awareness about Blackout Black ...
And another, titled 'Most Wonderful Time of the Year,' depicts graphic video footage of police violence in recent years which has helped expose the trend of violence that has too frequently, thoughout U.S. history, gone undocumented :
#BlackoutBlackFriday: The Most Wonderful Time of The Year'Most Wonderful Time of the Year' is directed by Shaka King and edited by Kristan Sprague. Blackout for Human Rights (Blackout) ...

OUR Walmart, the group behind last year's Black Friday activism, has promised even more actions this year with 1,500 protests scheduled at stores all across the country. Walmart is clearly nervous ahead of this year's plans because the company has asked judges in Maryland and Florida to bar protesters from entering stores on Black Friday.
"This is yet another move from Walmart to try to bend the law to its liking. Walmart has made it a practice to pursue over-the-top legal maneuvers to try to avoid hearing the real concerns of workers and community members," said Derrick Plummer, spokesman for the organizer, Making Change at Walmart, in a statement.
OUR Walmart announced that Black Friday protests are scheduled in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Miami, Chicago; Seattle, Washington (DC), Minneapolis and Sacramento, and the group calls it the "largest mobilization of working families in recent history."
"Workers are calling for an end to illegal retaliation, and for Walmart to publicly commit to improving labor standards, such as providing workers with more full time work and $25,000 a year. As the country's largest retailer and employer, Walmart makes more than $17 billion in profits, with the wealth of the Walton family totaling over $144.7 billion--equal to that of 42% of Americans," the group said in a statement.
Anthony Goytia, a part-time worker who stocks shelves during the overnight shift, says he isn't protesting because he hates Walmart. Al Jazeera America:
"I actually do like my job. It's fast-paced, and time goes by quick," he said. "But last year I made $12,000. I'm a husband. I have four kids. It's not enough. I'm living in poverty."
Goytia is a member of Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), which is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. He has taken part in several protests for better wages and working conditions at the store, including one in early November, when fifty-four people were arrested during protests at a new Walmart store in Los Angeles.
But worker actions against Walmart aren't isolated to Black Friday. On Monday, Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) joined Walmart workers in Minnesota who walked off the job, and in Los Angeles, workers went on a two-day strike that culminated in the largest-ever act of civil disobedience against Walmart. Last week, workers in Seattle, Chicago, Ohio and Dallas joined them in walking off their jobs.
Additionally, Walmart workers at three Washington, DC, area stores went on strike Tuesday, calling on the company to end its illegal retaliation against workers, and calling for better wages and full-time work.
"I'm speaking out today because Walmart can afford to do better by its workers," said striking worker Tiffany Beroid. "We want to work full time, and earn above the poverty level. And we are taking action today because Walmart needs to publicly commit to ending illegal retaliation against workers and better wages."
In fact, the resistance against Walmart's low wages never really went away. Workers have continually organized, fought for higher wages, and engaged in creative civil disobedience. For example, these workers led a flashmob back in September at a Raleigh, North Carolina Walmart store:
Walmart Workers Flash Mob | Raleigh, NCSeptember 5th, 2013, Raleigh, NC - As Walmart workers petition managers to reinstate employees who have been unfairly treated ...
Since June, Walmart has illegally disciplined more than eighty workers, including firing twenty worker-leaders, and more than 100 Unfair Labor Practice charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the company. Recently, the NLRB regional office announced it found merit to OUR Walmart's charge, and found Walmart committed eleven violations of national labor law.
At a time when workers are struggling to survive on low wages, activists expressed outrage at the retirement pension of Walmart CEO Mike Duke, which at $113 million, is more than 6,200 times greater than the average worker's pay.
"Walmart should be ashamed of the vast labor mismanagement under CEO Mike Duke. From the low wages at Walmart stores to dangerous working conditions in warehouses and the inexcusable safety conditions in factories in Bangladesh and other countries, as the world's largest employer, Walmart can and should do better to create good jobs and safe working conditions," Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs with Justice, said in a statement.
Following the announcement that Doug McMillon will succeed Duke as CEO, Beroid said the change of leadership is "a testament to the pressure the company is feeling that they're changing leadership at this moment."
She added:
"We're happy to see Mr. McMillon acknowledge the hard work of associates in his statement this morning, and we hope that this appreciation translates into improving jobs for Walmart workers. Americans nationwide are looking to Walmart to improve jobs and strengthen our economy, and Mr. McMillon has an opportunity to be a leader in moving Walmart in the right direction, not just in offering more empty promises. We sincerely hope that Mr. McMillon will answer the country's calls for Walmart to publicly commit to paying $25,000 a year, providing full-time work and ending its illegal retaliation against its own employees."
I will be live-tweeting from Black Friday actions in New Jersey. Follow me on Twitter @allisonkilkenny.