Amazon bans workers’ speaking on global warming

This 2 January 2020 United States TV video says about itself:

Amazon threatens to fire employees over climate change talk

Employees said the company threatened to fire workers who spoke to the media about climate change.

AMAZON THREATENED WORKERS WHO SPEAK OUT ON CLIMATE CHANGE The group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said its leaders had been threatened and questioned by the company’s human resources department about comments they made in the press last year. The company’s response is a form of “targeting” meant to keep employees from speaking out further, the group said. [HuffPost]

From the BBC today:

Amazon ‘threatens to fire’ climate change activists

A group of Amazon employees has said the company has threatened to fire some of them for speaking out on environmental issues.

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said the workers were told they were in violation of company policies.

It comes after employees joined calls for the e-commerce giant to do more to tackle climate change.

The company said its policy on employees making public comments is not new and covers all of its workers.

In a Twitter post, the group said some employees had been contacted by Amazon‘s legal and human resources teams and questioned about public comments they had made.

The statement went on to say: “Some workers then received follow-up emails threatening termination if they continue to speak about Amazon‘s business.”

We must be able to speak up. Here is our press response to Amazon’s intimidation tactics. 3/ pic.twitter.com/7DqhCw09Yf

— Amazon Employees For Climate Justice (@AMZNforClimate) January 2, 2020

… Amazon Employees for Climate Justice is a group of the company’s workers “who believe it’s our responsibility to ensure our business models don’t contribute to the climate crisis“.

The group has called on Amazon to achieve zero emissions by 2030, limit its work with fossil fuel companies, and stop funding for politicians and lobbyists who deny the existence of climate change.

Amazon, like many other big companies, has faced increasing pressure from both the public and its own workers to take bolder steps to address its impact on the environment.

In May thousands of Amazon employees used the company’s annual shareholders meeting to call on chief executive Jeff Bezos to formulate a broad climate change initiative for the business.

That proposal was rejected by shareholders. … More than 1,000 workers left their desks to join the Global Climate Strike, as well as protesting against Amazon’s environmental policies.

See also here.