Friend,

Today is Cyber Monday, and Amazon is offering big deals. You know what else the mega corporation is doing?

Demanding long hours from delivery drivers whose vans can exceed 100 degrees.(1) Firing employees injured on the job.(2) Firing unionizing drivers.(3) Forcing employees to work despite chronic back pain, potential brain damage, torn ACLs, and more.(4)

mazon is treating its employees worse than ever before. But workers aren’t giving up their fight for a living wage, humane working conditions, and their right to form a union, and neither is Courage California. We are leading the fight in California against Amazon’s corporate power and shining a bright light on its abuses.

This Cyber Monday, instead of buying from Amazon, will you donate to Courage California Institute and our work to stop corporate abuse? Your donation is tax deductible!

Amazon workers are twice as likely to be injured on the job as other warehouse workers.(5) When they do get hurt, they’re too often silenced, denied adequate medical care, and discarded by the world’s richest corporation.(6)

The company has engaged in all manner of illegal intimidation tactics to stop warehouse workers from unionizing(7,8) When they succeeded in Staten Island, Amazon refused to recognize them.(9)

Just as horrific: how Amazon treats drivers they claim are “indirect employees.” The company will terminate exclusive contracts with third-party companies that hire their drivers rather than give them better pay or conditions.(10)

And Amazon could get even worse under Donald Trump’s oligarch government and his plans to roll back regulations and bust unions.

Courage California has partnered with Amazon workers, helping support union drives and other efforts to raise awareness about the company’s abuse of employees, including its current effort to stop California drivers from unionizing.

We’ve called out and worked to curb Amazon’s monopoly status that enables it to overcharge and mistreat customers and as well as its third-party sellers. We need to be able to ramp up that work in 2025.

This Cyber Monday, will you stand with Amazon workers and pitch in $5 to support the fight against the company’s egregious abuse of power?

Thank you for being with us.

–Irene, along with Annie, Angela, Isidra, Cecilia, Jen, and Lindsay (the Courage team)

Footnote:
1. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-09-24/amazon-demands-a-lot-from-its-drivers-now-its-a-two-way-street
2. https://www.exposeamazon.org/stories
3. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/13/amazon-drivers-union-fired-strike
4. https://www.exposeamazon.org/stories
5. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/12/study-amazon-workers-seriously-hurt-at-twice-rate-of-other-warehouses.html
6. https://www.exposeamazon.org/stories
7. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/01/amazon-broke-federal-labor-law-by-racially-disparaging-union-leaders.html
8. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/inside-alleged-amazon-union-busting-campaign-kentucky-scare/story?id=105382727
9. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/28/1165294695/labor-union-starbucks-amazon-howard-schultz-workers
10. https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-hit-with-us-labor-board-complaint-over-joint-employment-drivers-2024-10-02/

Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives. The Courage California Institute is the educational arm of the Courage California family of organizations. Our mission is to defend and extend human rights through innovative leadership development, training, strategic research, and public education.

Courage California Institute is a 501c(3) non-profit organization. Contributions or gifts to Courage California Institute are tax deductible within IRS guidelines.