• About
  • Documents
    • Introduction
    • Statutes
      • English version
      • Deutsche Version
      • Versión en español
      • Versi bahasa indonesia
    • Work Areas
    • Meeting with delegates from South Korean unions
    • South Korea: Unions and labour relations
    • 国际劳工联合会简介
  • Legal notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookies
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • es Español
  • en English
  • Login
ICL-CIT
  • News
  • Documents
  • Introduction
  • Bodies
  • Statutes
  • Feminism
  • Work Areas
  • Contact
ICL-CIT
  • About
  • Documents
    • Introduction
    • Statutes
      • English version
      • Deutsche Version
      • Versión en español
      • Versi bahasa indonesia
    • Work Areas
    • Meeting with delegates from South Korean unions
    • South Korea: Unions and labour relations
    • 国际劳工联合会简介
  • Legal notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookies
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ICL-CIT
No Result
View All Result
Home international

Destroying the planet one parcel at a time!

24 February, 2021
in international, IP
0
Destroying the planet one parcel at a time!
414
SHARES
2.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Amazon pollutes more than the biggest coal-fired power plants in the EU. Exploitation of working people destroys the planet!

Environmental organizations are actively involved in the #MakeAmazonPay employee campaign. That campaign included blocking deliveries at Amazon warehouses near Wrocław in December 2020, and was supported by Greenpeace Polska [1]. We also received letters of support from local mining trade unions [2]. It is notable that former miners of decommissioned coal mines in the Lower Silesia region are among the rank and file members of our commission at Amazon – and count among our most active.

Meanwhile, through its anti-social and anti-labour management model, Amazon has become a huge greenhouse gas emitter. Despite pro-ecological propaganda, Amazon’s carbon footprint in 2019 grew to 51 million tons [3]. Thus, Jeff Bezos’ company has already surpassed all the largest coal-fired power plants in the European Union, with Amazon’s carbon footprint equal to the top five of ten largest emitters in the EU combined [4]. Moreover, while the largest coal-fuelled power plant in the EU, Bełchatów, reduced its carbon footprint by 15 percent (i.e. by 5.6 million tons of CO2, from 38.3 to 32.7 million tons) [5], Amazon increased its by 15% (almost 7 million tons, from 44.4 to the above-mentioned 51 million tons) [6]. The annual difference in the growth of Amazon’s carbon footprint is close to the entire declared emissions of the largest coal producer in the European Union and the largest coal-mine operator in this region, the Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa group [7].

Amazon, which is constantly expanding in Poland, has not yet disclosed the full scale of its carbon emissions in our country. However, one must be mindful of the fundamentally different social functions that power plants, coal mines and the Amazon corporation perform in Poland. These power plants and mines provide energy to homes, schools, hospitals, offices and all other social infrastructure – including private companies like Amazon. With the large (although decreasing) carbon footprint of these entities, almost 40 million people in Poland benefit daily from the fruits of the miners’ and power plant workers’ labour. For short change, a typical Amazon employee in Poland – in many cases, a former miner – packs products sold and consumed in Germany and other Western countries; ensuring, in fact, that they work for the German retail market, are compensated for their labour at 1/4 of a German wage, and do so in a warehouse built several hundred kilometres from the eastern border of that country.

Amazon management bases its profits on the chronic overwork of employees. The exploitation of human resources goes hand in hand with the exploitation of the Earth’s resources. As a result of the activities of our union, it has been established that the heads of Polish warehouses at Amazon force employees to significantly exceed reasonable working hours and conditions [8]. The excessively high pace of work also translates to excessive energy consumption and a higher carbon footprint. In the December 2020 peak period, Polish Amazon employees had their daily working time extended to 11.5 hours, which also means greater energy consumption in warehouses. What’s more, low wages encourage the corporation to lengthen the supply chain: packing occurs in the poor East, while the consumption of those packages transpires in the rich West.

The profits accumulated by Amazon millionaire-shareholders, led by the company’s CEO and one of the richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos, allow these millionaires to live in clover at a time of great social crises. Amazon’s local workers, paid slightly above the minimum wage in Poland and well below the Western minimum wage, are particularly vulnerable to crises – both ecological and epidemiological.

That is why the joint participation of trade unions and environmental groups in the #MakeAmazonPay campaign is so important. Together we must make Amazon pay – finally – for their exploitation of people and the planet.

IP Amazon
Original article


Footnotes:

[1] Video from Greenpeace Polska’s participation in the Make Amazon Pay protests:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=415760146504267

[2] The content of the letter of unions from the Bogdanka mine to OZZ IP in Amazon:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=415760146504267

[3] Official company report
https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/…/carbon-footprint

[4] Nico Muzi, Top shipping polluter overtakes power plants as coal shuts down, Transportenvironment.org portal, 3.07.2020
https://www.transportenvironment.org/…/top-shipping-pollute…

[5] Katarzyna Grzelak, Bełchatów is the leader of the infamous ranking. The Polish power plant is the largest emitter of CO2 in the EU, Focus.pl portal, 8 July 2020
https://www.focus.pl/…/belchatow-liderem-niechlubnego-ranki…

[6] AP News, “Despite green pledges, Amazon’s carbon footprint grew 15%”
https://apnews.com/article/95986c4ba779f1d35ac4ca2afdd745c3

[7] “Carbon footprint of the JSW Group”, company statement
https://www.jsw.pl/odpowiedzialny-biznes/slad-weglowy-gk-jsw

[8] Klara Klinger, Patrycja Otto, “Work beyond measure, forced to work standing up, problems with water … It’s all in the Polish Amazon”, Dziennik.pl portal, 9/08/2018
https://gospodarka.dziennik.pl/…/579068,amazon-praca-pracow…

Also available in: Español (Spanish)

Tags: #MakeAmazonPayAmazoncampaignEnvironmentalIP
Previous Post

Olive oil sale in solidarity with CNT Gijon

Next Post

HENRY SCHEIN, a multinational company supplying medical equipment, has profited from the current pandemic, yet it EXPLOITS and FIRES its workers.

ICL CIT

ICL CIT

The ICL brings together a number of anarcho-syndicalist and revolutionary unions from around the world. It is born out of their desire for closer collaboration and to add an international dimension to their local work, which will allow them to coordinate with comrades around the world and make their struggles visible to a global audience.

Related Posts

[IP] Against war – for international workers’ solidarity!
IP

[IP] Against war – for international workers’ solidarity!

9 March, 2022
[Germany] Wage theft on the Baltic Sea coast
FAU

[Germany] Wage theft on the Baltic Sea coast

6 February, 2022
[Poland] Another year of struggle. Support the IP!
ICL-CIT

[Poland] Another year of struggle. Support the IP!

30 December, 2021
[Poland] Solidarity with people deported to the forest
ICL-CIT

[Poland] Solidarity with people deported to the forest

20 November, 2021
Panel: State Interventionism vs. Workers’ Participation
ICL-CIT

Panel: State Interventionism vs. Workers’ Participation

1 October, 2021
Next Post
HENRY SCHEIN, a multinational company supplying medical equipment, has profited from the current pandemic, yet it EXPLOITS and FIRES its workers.

HENRY SCHEIN, a multinational company supplying medical equipment, has profited from the current pandemic, yet it EXPLOITS and FIRES its workers.

[Bangladesh] Release all political prisoners and arrested activists!

[Bangladesh] Release all political prisoners and arrested activists!

The “essential” thing is to exploit us a little bit more

The "essential" thing is to exploit us a little bit more

Categories

  • 1st May (6)
  • CNT (25)
  • EΣE (6)
  • FAU (13)
  • Feminism (22)
  • FORA (7)
  • ICL-CIT (33)
  • international (70)
  • IP (7)
  • IWW (9)
  • Present (6)
  • Sin categoría (2)
  • Syndicalism (17)
  • USI (14)

Follow Us


    The ICL brings together a number of anarcho-syndicalist and revolutionary unions from around the world. It is born out of their desire for closer collaboration and to add an international dimension to their local work, which will allow them to coordinate with comrades around the world and make their struggles visible to a global audience.

    RSS IWW

    RSS FAU

    • [nd] Kurierdienst EcoCarrier klimaneutral ausgebremst
    • Film und Diskussion: El Entusiasmo
    • Film und Diskussion: Fernand Pelloutier und die Arbeitsbörsen
    • Streik bis zur Rente? Info und Diskussion zur aktuellen Situation in Frankreich

    RSS CNT

    • Nuevo local del sindicato en Pineda de Mar
    • Súmate al apoyo a las compas de La Suiza
    • 28M Abstención activa
    • CNT Jerez denuncia ante la inspección de trabajo a la empresa ISS

    RSS USI

    • 17 GIUGNO 2023 APPELLO PER L’UNITA’ D’AZIONE PER LA GIUSTIZIA SOCIALE E CLIMATICA
    • L’ULTIMO VIAGGIO DI UNA RIBELLE
    • COMUNICATO SUL DECRETO LAVORO
    • MANIFESTAZIONE A MILANO IL PRIMO MAGGIO

    RSS EΣE

    • 29 Μαίου στις 19:00 Σταμάτα την κλοπή των αφεντικών – Μάθε τα δικαιώματα σου!
    • Πανό της ΕΣΕ-Αθήνας
    • ANGRY SMILE EMOTICON LIVE: Για την ενίσχυση του ταμείου Αλληλοβοήθειας της ΕΣΕ
    • Φωτογραφίες απο την συμμετοχή της ΕΣΕ-Αθήνας στην συγκέντρωση-διαδήλωση για τη 1η Μάη 2023
    • es Español
    • en English
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
    • Documents
      • Introduction
      • Statutes
      • Work Areas
      • Documents
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

    The ICL brings together a number of anarcho-syndicalist and revolutionary unions from around the world. It is born out of their desire for closer collaboration and to add an international dimension to their local work, which will allow them to coordinate with comrades around the world and make their struggles visible to a global audience.

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    • English
    • Español (Spanish)
    This page uses cookies and other technologies so that we can improve your experience on our site: Read more.