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Protesters march to Jeff Bezos' mansion after 20,000 Amazon employees get Covid-19: 'Your greed is killing us'

Amazon has said that the number of its employees who have contracted Covid-19 is not disproportionate to the prevalent of the virus in the general population

A number of protesters marched down the streets to reach the palatial Beverly Hills mansion of Jeff Bezos as they demanded him to take responsibility for 20,000 Amazon employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus. The protest titled ‘The Wrong Amazon is Burning' took place on Saturday, October 3, and labor and environmental activists assembled at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills to slam the Amazon CEO before they moved towards his house. The march was reportedly held by The Congress of Essential Workers (TCOEW) -- a group of current and former Amazon employees -- and Chris Smalls of Staten Island, New York, headed it.

Smalls was an ex-employee of Amazon, and who was fired from his job in March for reportedly organizing a demonstration against the lack of personal protective equipment and hazard pay amid the pandemic. At the time, Amazon said Smalls was dismissed from his position for "violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk.” “He's not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we're trying to protect workers,” wrote Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky.

A statement from TCOEW read: “We demand that Jeff Bezos and the rest of the billionaire class pay their fair share to deal with the climate crisis. We are calling for a decent living wage of $30/hour minimum for all Amazon employees, Medicare and childcare for all, and the right to unionize without fear of retaliation. These are just a few of the issues that we feel billionaires like Jeff Bezos, who makes nearly $4,000 a second, can absolutely help relieve or resolve."

According to The Daily Mail, climate activist groups Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion also took part in the rally by protesters who chanted, “F*** Bezos". They were also seen holding placards that read messages like, “your greed is killing us”, “abolish billionaires”, “share with your country!”, "there is no planet B", “ecocide is genocide” and "science not silence". And as they reached Bezos' $165 million address, they roared: “tax Bezos” while Smalls said “enough is enough" using a bullhorn.

"Destroying small businesses, destroying working class people, destroying lower class people. Enough is enough. We're tired, we're done and I want to say this... f*** Jeff Bezos,” Smalls stated.

The protest happened after approximately 20,000 workers of Amazon in the US contracted the deadly virus. But The Amazon blog stated, “We compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period, accounting for geography and the age composition of our employees to make the data as accurate as possible. Based on this analysis, if the rate among Amazon and Whole Foods Market employees were the same as it is for the general population rate, we estimate that we would have seen 33,952 cases among our workforce.”

People on Twitter have also expressed their views on the protest. One user tweeted, “I think all AMAZON employees should be paid at least 100k, Struke and protest until @JeffBezos gives in.. Make Amazon ground to a halt... You employees have the power make them pay you…” Another person said, “Sad that a protest against Jeff Bezos gets no attention. But stories about a lying orange bitch get so much. Focus on people and their struggles, not made up bullshit. These workers struggle for you. The orange fuck care about you.” “This I can support fully!!” added the third user.