According to its employees, Amazon is deliberately polluting the air of people of color. "As employees, we are concerned that Amazon's pollution is disproportionately concentrated in communities of color," they said in their statement.

Hundreds of Amazon workers are putting pressure on the company to end pollution. More than 600 workers have signed a petition asking the tech giant to reduce pollution to zero by 2030 — mostly in areas populated by people of color. They also called on the company's management to prioritize the implementation of zero-carbon technologies near the communities most affected by Amazon pollution, The Verge reported .

The petition was launched after Amazon rejected a resolution by a group of shareholders asking the company to report on the extent of its pollution in neighborhoods of color. The company justified this by saying that

the proposal was similar to an earlier one that had already been voted down by shareholders last year.

Amazon's warehouses have slowly flooded neighborhoods in working-class communities that are predominantly people of color, activists say. According to them, these warehouses have become "pollution magnets" due to transportation by diesel trucks, trains and planes.

“ Amazon is breaking into these areas without informing the community. They show up with warehouses and trucks that spoil our roads, our air, " Paola Dela Cruz-Perez, youth organizer for the nonprofit East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, said at a shareholder briefing.

“ Amazon expanded its operations in Southeast because it understood the workings of environmental racism and chose to profit from this oppression ”

he added.

The workers organizing the petition are members of the environmental protection organization Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

“ As employees, we are concerned that Amazon's pollution is disproportionately concentrated in communities of color. We want to be proud of where we work. It is critical for this to be a company that lives up to its claims of rejecting racial discrimination and reduces racial equity through its operations, " they wrote in their statement.

Source: hirado.hu

Cover image: Illustration / Reuters