• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • About Us
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Parcel & Express
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Robotics
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Customer Relationship Management
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • Green Energy
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Management & Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Warehouse Automation
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Library
  • PODCASTS
  • WHITEPAPERS
  • VIDEOS
Home » Amazon Warehouse Workers Push for Changes at Annual Meeting

Amazon Warehouse Workers Push for Changes at Annual Meeting

Amazon
An employee packs a box at an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center. Photo: Bloomberg.
May 26, 2021
Bloomberg

The spasm of worker activism that has roiled Amazon.com Inc. in recent months arrived at the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday, with two leaders of a failed union drive backing shareholder proposals encouraging Amazon to complete a diversity audit and consider workers for board seats.

Shareholders on Wednesday rejected all 11 outsider proposals, including calls to disclose the risks of Amazon’s surveillance technology and antitrust liabilities, pay and promotion rates among gender and racial groups and its plastic waste output. All of the company’s slate of director nominees were approved, General Counsel David Zapolsky said during the meeting.

Vote totals weren’t immediately available at the meeting, during which outgoing Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos announced that his successor would take overJuly 5 and pushed back against antitrust charges leveled at the company.

The e-commerce giant’s yearly gathering has become a hotbed of shareholder activism, with investors seeking to nudge the company on social responsibility, transparency and environmentalism, among other issues. In recent years, employees have also started speaking up. In 2019, staff at Amazon’s headquarters attended the in-person meeting in Seattle en masse, a show of support for a worker-authored resolution calling for more action by Amazon to prevent climate change.

Darryl Richardson and Jennifer Bates, who both work at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse, spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, held virtually because of the pandemic.

Richardson backed a proposed audit of Amazon’s impact on racial equity, inside and outside the company. He said that if the company wanted to honor its commitments to racial diversity and equity, “Amazon would listen to its Black workers, not campaign against them.”

Bates spoke on behalf of a proposal to consider nominees from its hourly workforce for future board openings. The pandemic and the unprecedented union drive in Alabama shone an often negative spotlight on working conditions for the hundreds of thousands of workers who pack, ship and deliver Amazon’s goods. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which sought to represent workers in the warehouse, is appealing its defeat, alleging illegal conduct by Amazon. The company denies the charges.

Bates said Amazon doesn’t listen to feedback from workers like her, saying that when she sought to raise concerns, “managers are unavailable, don’t listen, or simply dismiss me.”

“We want to make sure that the leadership understands its most important asset: the workers,” she said.

Alicia Boler Davis, who runs Amazon’s main warehouse network, stuck up for her employer’s workplace record, saying during the meeting that the company was “committed to doing the right thing by its employees.” She echoed aims Bezos laid out in his recent shareholder letter, to make Amazon the best place to work.

“While it may be easy for critics to paint in broad brush strokes an image of a cold-hearted employer and negative working conditions, the reality is very different,” said Boler Davis, a member of Bezos’s senior leadership team.

Investor advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. had recommended shareholders vote for all but two of the outside proposals, including the worker representation resolution and proposed racial audit, over Amazon’s objections. Amazon, which has ramped up advertising and public-relations campaigns around its good works in recent years, devoted nearly 16,000 words in its proxy statement to rebuttals of the shareholder proposals.

Also voted down was a proposal for Amazon to appoint a corporate outsider as board chair in place of Bezos, a perennial shareholder proposal.

    RELATED CONTENT

    RELATED VIDEOS

    HR & Labor Management All Warehouse Services E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Related Articles

      Amazon Warehouse Workers Prepare for Historic Union Vote

      Union Push at U.K. Amazon Warehouse Falls Short by 28 Votes

      Amazon to Give U.K. Warehouse Workers 10% Raise

    • Related Directories

      Tecsys, Inc.

      ProcureAbility

    Bloomberg

    Airbus Delays XLR Deliveries to IndiGo as War Hits Suppliers

    More from this author

    Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!

    Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

    Featured Product

    Popular Stories

    • A TRUCK WITH ITS CONTAINER DOOR OPEN SITS UNDER A SIGN THAT READS INTERNATIONAL BORDER COMMERCIAL TRUCKS

      Importers Into Mexico Can No Longer Delay Complying With New Customs Declaration Law

      Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • 018_how_3pls_can_get_started_with_ai_v1-(540p).png

      Watch: How 3PLs Can Get Started With Automation

      Logistics Outsourcing
    • An employee in a warm suit crouches down to get boxes of food ready for shipping at a warehouse

      Packaging Optimization Is Boosting Cold Chain Growth

      Air Cargo
    • A FIGURE IN CAMOUFLAGE LOOKS THROUGH A SCOPING DEVICE AT A SHIP IN THE DISTANCE, BELCHING SMOKE

      Strait of Hormuz Ship Transits Are Rising Thanks to U.S. Help

      Global Gateways
    • Heat Haze Distorts Video of Semi-Trucks Driving Down an Interstate Surrounded by Mountains on a Sunny Day

      The Biggest Challenges Facing Logistics Operators This Summer

      Logistics

    Digital Edition

    2026 esg cover main scb q2 2026 cover

    SupplyChainBrain 2026 ESG Guide: ESG — The Supply Chain’s Biggest Secret

    VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

    Case Studies

    • Recycled Tagging Fasteners: Small Changes Make a Big Impact

    • A GRAPHIC SHOWING MULTIPLE FORMS OF SHIPPING, WITH A HUMAN STANDING AT THE CENTER, TOUCHING A SYMBOLIC MAP OF THE WORLD

      Enhancing High-Value Electronics Shipment Security with Tive's Real-Time Tracking

    • A GRAPHIC OF INTERLACING HONEYCOMBED ELEMENTS REPRESENTING GLOBAL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS

      Moving Robots Site-to-Site

    • JLL Finds Perfect Warehouse Location, Leading to $15M Grant for Startup

    • Robots Speed Fulfillment to Help Apparel Company Scale for Growth

    Visit Our Sponsors

    4flow Arkieva Blue Yonder
    Carton Cloud CoEnterprise Dassault
    Duravant E2Open General Logistics Systems
    Hy-Tek iGPS Korber
    Lyngsoe Procurability Quinyx
    SAP Sikick Systech
    S&P Global Mobility TADA TransImpact
    US Bank Werner Enterprises WSI
    • More From SCB
      • Featured Content
      • Video Library
      • Think Tank Blog
      • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
      • Whitepapers
      • On-Demand Webinars
      • Upcoming Webinars
    • Digital Offerings
      • Digital Issue
      • Subscribe
      • Manage Email Preferences
      • Newsletters
    • Resources
      • Events Calendar
      • 2026 Event Coverage
      • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
      • Supplier Directory
      • Case Study Showcase
      • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
      • 100 Great Partners Form
    • SCB Corporate
      • Advertise on SCB.COM
      • About Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact Us
      • Data Sharing Opt-Out

    All content copyright ©2026 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

    Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing