This Black Friday, while millions of consumers click “Buy Now,” Amazon workers and allies across more than 30 countries will be taking to the streets. They are joining Make Amazon Pay Day, to demand what should already be given in the twenty-first century – safe workplaces, fair treatment, and a voice on the job.

The scale of this year’s protests is unlike anything we have seen. Strikes and demonstrations are planned at warehouses in Germany, rallies will sweep through major Indian cities, garment workers in Bangladesh will march for safety, and allies from Canada to Brazil to South Africa will confront Amazon’s growing influence over our governments, our communities, and our planet.

The reason behind this surge of resistance is simple. Amazon’s business model is pushing workers, and the societies they live in, to a breaking point. The corporation’s rapid expansion has created enormous wealth and unprecedented convenience, but workers are paying for that convenience with their health, their dignity, and too often their safety. Nowhere is that clearer than in India.

In the summer of 2024, India endured one of the worst heatwaves in recorded history. Temperatures climbed above 50°C, and inside Amazon’s warehouses the situation became dire. Workers fainted on the job. They vomited, collapsed, and struggled to breathe. Some were told not to take breaks – not even to drink water – until they hit their targets.

Today, a year later, very little has changed. UNI Global Union’s recent survey of Indian Amazon workers shows that extreme heat remains a threat. Nearly six in ten respondents described conditions as “extremely hot and unsafe” or “like an oven.” Sixty-eight percent said they had felt dizzy or sick at work because of the heat. Most had witnessed a coworker collapse. Only a small fraction received extra cooling breaks during dangerous temperature spikes.

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One worker in Manesar explained the impossible choice they face: “if they take a day off after fainting, they lose pay. If they take three days off, they risk being fired” A delivery worker in Delhi reported that her “whole body burned” during heatwaves, yet targets stayed the same. Associates in Haryana described the docks as “suffocating” with no relief in sight.

Amazon’s actions show a willingness to push workers to their physical limits, even as climate change accelerates and temperatures escalate beyond what any warehouse was designed to withstand. The company speaks often about compliance with local laws, but in the face of unprecedented environmental conditions, compliance is not enough. Real climate resilience requires investment, planning, and above all, respect for the people who keep the business running.

Although the heat crisis in India is stark, the underlying issue is global. Amazon relies on a management system that pressures workers to move faster than is safe. Quotas often exceed what the human body can sustain. Workers are tracked and penalised if they slow down, and many fear retaliation for speaking up.

This is more than a labour problem. It is a democracy problem. When a corporation amasses the power to monitor its workforce minute by minute, to fight unionization efforts with unlimited resources, and to influence public policy in pursuit of its own interests, the balance between corporate power and democratic rights begins to unravel.

We see this in Amazon’s attempts to block union organising in Canada and the United States. We see it in Bangladesh, where the company refuses to sign the Accord, a legally binding agreement that has saved countless garment workers’ lives since the Rana Plaza disaster. And we see it in Amazon’s determination to expand data centers that consume vast amounts of energy and water in regions already strained by climate change.

Despite these challenges, workers are winning important battles. In Canada, after months of obstruction by Amazon, warehouse workers in Delta, British Columbia secured union certification with Unifor when the labour board ruled that the company had interfered unlawfully. In Australia, unions succeeded in pushing the government to introduce ethical procurement standards that could prevent companies accused of labour abuses from receiving public contracts. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission recently forced Amazon to pay $2.5 billion in a landmark settlement over deceptive practices.

These victories show what is possible when workers and civil society organise and when regulators hold corporations accountable. But lasting change will only come when Amazon respects workers’ rights everywhere, not only in countries where it is forced to.

The demands workers are raising this Black Friday should not be controversial. They want safe quotas that reflect real human capabilities, regular paid breaks, cooling rooms, access to water, and heat-resilient infrastructure. They want transparency about how algorithmic management systems assess and discipline them. They want the right to form a union and negotiate collectively, without fear of retaliation.

These are the foundations of decent work. They are also the foundations of any functioning democracy.

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Black Friday is a symbol of consumption at any cost. But the workers who pick, pack, lift, sort, and deliver billions of items every year are saying something important: the real cost of Amazon’s model is becoming intolerable. If we continue down the current path, we risk entrenching a future where technology is used to squeeze workers rather than empower them, and where climate change amplifies exploitation rather than prompting reform.

Amazon will not change voluntarily. But workers, united with communities and allies around the world, are already forcing a reckoning.

This Black Friday, as protests unfold from New Delhi to Berlin to Montréal, we have a choice to make. We can continue rewarding a model that treats workers as expendable and communities as collateral damage. Or we can stand with those who are fighting for fairness, safety, and a seat at the table.

Because when workers in India fight for breathable worksites, when garment workers in Bangladesh demand safety, when warehouse workers in Germany walk off the job, they are defending more than themselves. They are defending the very idea that human beings – not algorithms, not billionaires – should shape the future of work.

Christy Hoffman is the general secretary of UNI Global Union.

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