Amazon (AMZN) workers around the world are staging a strike from Black Friday through Cyber Monday this weekend to protest their wages and working conditions.
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Calling the action “Make Amazon Pay Day,” workers are holding strikes in more than 20 countries, including the U.S., India, and Canada, to protest what they call “exploitation.” The so called “days of resistance” are being organized by several unions, including UNI Global Union and Progressive International.
The strike comes during the start of the busy year-end holiday shopping season, when retailers such as Amazon discount items for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events that fall around U.S. Thanksgiving. This is the fifth year in a row that workers at Amazon have staged protests during the holiday weekend.
Business as Usual
In a statement, Amazon accused the organizers of the job action of promoting a “false narrative” about the company and its pay and benefits. It’s not clear exactly how many workers in the U.S. or abroad are taking part in this year’s strike actions.
Amazon has not said if the protests disrupt its operations or not. However, there’s no question that the strikes come at a busy time. Amazon has announced plans to hire 250,000 seasonal workers for the year-end holidays, and the company has said that it expects online holiday shopping to grow 5% from last year and hit a record $240 billion.
Earlier this week, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) named Amazon the best stock to own heading into the year-end holidays owing to the robust online shopping expected between now and Christmas.
Amazon’s stock has risen 35% this year.
Is AMZN Stock a Buy?
Amazon stock has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 46 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 45 Buy and one Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. There are no Sell ratings on the stock. The average AMZN price target of $239 implies 16% upside from current levels.
