Extinction Rebellion activists blockade Amazon depot in Essex
The first blockade began at 5 am outside their Tilbury fulfilment centre
Last updated 26th Nov 2021
Activists from Extinction Rebellion have said they are blockading Amazon's depot in Essex today, as the online shopping giant prepares for its Black Friday sale.
It began at 5am this morning outside an Amazon depot in Tilbury with protestors taking action in a number of other areas in England today.
The group said it was targeting Amazon sites in Doncaster, Darlington, Newcastle, Manchester, Peterborough, Derby, Coventry, Rugeley, Dartford, Bristol, Tilbury and Milton Keynes.
We spoke to Clarissa Carlyon, one of the protestors on the site. She says, " Amazon is a prime actor in the economic system that is exploiting and destroying our planet in the pursuit of profits. It's really important that companies like that are held accountable when they are destroying lives instead of supporting it as they should be."
She goes on to add, "Since 2018, there have been nearly 1000 ambulance call outs to Amazon warehouses, including 178 to this centre in Tilbury, almost one every week. Employee's working conditions are so bad that they are requiring to call emergency services.
"While that's going on, the Government is subsidising increased profits for Amazon by allowing them to stash their billions of pounds in tax havens. This is leaving ordinary tax payers like us to pick up the bill for public services, including the ambulances that is attending to their workers."
Amazon announced in 2019 that they were going to be net-zero by 2040 but Ms Carlyon believes their plan does not go far enough. "They're pretending to care about the environment by talking about their net-zero targets. But those plans ignore Amazon's global supply chain, which is responsible for nearly 75 percent of its carbon emissions."
"They are also lobbying the US Government against implementing climate change legislation. So its very clear that Jeff Bezos and Amazon care more about spending money on a rocket to go into space than they do about the health and wellbeing of their workers and consumers", she says.
In a statement, the Seattle-based company say:
“At Amazon, we take our responsibilities very seriously. That includes our commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040 - 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement - providing excellent pay and benefits in a safe and modern work environment, and supporting the tens of thousands of British small businesses who sell on our store.
"We know there is always more to do, and we’ll continue to invent and invest on behalf of our employees, customers, small businesses and communities in the UK.
"We’re proud to have invested £32bn in the UK since 2010, creating 10,000 new permanent jobs across the country this year alone, and generating a total UK tax contribution of £1.55bn in 2020.”
The protestors in Tilbury are planning to stay at the site until Sunday at the least. There have been some disturbances to traffic so far and Essex Police are on the scene.