- Protesters set up a guillotine outside Jeff Bezos’ home to protest the wages of Amazon workers on Thursday.
- The protest came the day after Bezos’ net worth exceeded $ 200 billion for the first time, making him one of the richest people in history.
- Protestants, led by former warehouse worker and outspoken Amazon critic Christian Smalls, called for the company to raise its minimum wage to $ 30 an hour.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
More than 100 protesters gathered outside Jeff Bezos’ Washington, DC, mansion on Thursday and constructed a guillotine outside its front door to protest the wages of Amazon workers.
The protest came the day after Bezos’ net worth exceeded $ 200 billion, making him the richest person in history, according to Forbes. Its wealth has grown by about $ 85 billion since January, boosted by Amazon’s solid revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
IN video posted on Twitter by a Washington Examiner reporter shows former Amazon warehouse worker Christian Smalls, an outspoken Amazon critic, urging the company to increase its minimum wage from $ 15 per hour to $ 30 per hour in light of the sheer wealth of Bezos. The protest was led by The Congress of Essential Workers, a group founded by Smalls.
“Give a good reason why we do not earn a $ 30 minimum wage if this man earns $ 4,000 a second,” Smalls said.
—Nic Rowan (@NicXTempore) August 27, 2020
Smalls was fired from Amazon’s Staten Island magazine after calling for better safety standards amid the pandemic. Smalls said he was fired in retaliation for organizing a walkout after an employee tested positive for coronavirus, but Amazon denied this.
Since then, he has led several protests on Amazon and Bezos, including a August 10 protest outside Bezos’ New York apartment building.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted some Amazon employees to comment on working conditions, it has also been a financial benefit to the company. It reported $ 88.9 billion in sales in the second quarter of 2020, a record for the company.
It is not clear if the Protestant guillotine had a real blade or was functional. The Congress of Essential Workers did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
