This petition states the demands of our movement, No Hate at Amazon.
Join the more than 650 Amazon workers who have united with us and sign the petition today!
We, the workers of Amazon, call on Amazon to reject hate.
Amazon has established a pattern of platforming and profiting from hate. Most recently, Amazon has started selling hateful books that attack transgender youth and has shockingly classified and promoted them as bestsellers in the LGBTQ+ category. Amazon workers, especially in the trans and LGBTQ+ community, are pushing to remove these books and others like them because they are directly hurting our community. However, Amazon has not only continued to sell them, but is still promoting them as top results for transgender search terms.
These books are one tactic used by a broader anti-transgender hate movement that in 2021 pushed a record breaking amount of anti-trans legislation targeted at minors and their access to lifesaving gender-affirming medical care. Last year murders and violence against transgender people increased to record highs. When Amazon stopped selling an anti-trans book early last year, radical, bigoted pundits and politicians disingenuously claimed Amazon taking action against hate was “an assault on free speech” and “censorship”. This is not a free speech or censorship issue. Companies like Amazon have a responsibility and legal right to set and enforce content guidelines to prevent hate and abuse.
Following this coordinated backlash, Amazon upper management refused to engage with workers about subsequent anti-trans books. They refused to elaborate on the decision-making process. They refused to resolve the inconsistency between these books and their content policy. In response to workers’ protests, they deflected with talking points about “censorship” and the “marketplaces of ideas”.
By continuing to sell and promote anti-trans books and repeating the rhetoric of the anti-trans hate movement, Amazon upper management has allowed the store that we build and operate to be complicit in this hate movement. This has created a hostile work environment that has forced many trans workers to take medical leave or resign. This is not the first time that Amazon upper management has dismissed concerns from marginalized or oppressed groups. Their actions create a workplace which forces members of those communities to choose between their health and their jobs. Amazon’s continued lack of action on hate leaves the door open to platforming even more hate and further abuse.
In response, we are organizing a worker-led movement to stop hate at Amazon and prevent this abuse from ever happening again. We imagine a better future in which Amazon empowers workers with actual influence over the policies, products, and content that impact us in order to protect all marginalized communities and oppressed groups.
We call on Amazon to:
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Stop hate at Amazon: Stop selling the anti-trans hate books Irreversible Damage and Johnny the Walrus.
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Establish an elected workers’ oversight board which:
- Includes and collectively advocates for workers from marginalized communities and oppressed groups.
- Exercises powers including rejecting and reclassifying content.
- Communicates openly about decisions and justifications.
- Implementation details of this board must be approved democratically by signers of this petition.
We invite all employee groups and workers to speak up and unite with us to stop all forms of hate at Amazon.