Streamers and journalists might be taking part in a Twitch boycott in solidarity with Amazon workers going on strike on Amazon Prime Day next Monday. The strike, beginning July 16, is transnational and many Amazon workers are looking for better wages and employee rights.
On July 10, Spanish labor unions called for around 1,000 Amazon employees to walk out for three days in a labor strike aimed at combatting proposals that will allegedly reduce workers’ rights. Activists have called for other Amazon workers around the world to do the same, and have encouraged customers to boycott the platform on Amazon Prime Day, on Monday, July 16, in solidarity with these strikes.
Twitch was acquired by Amazon in August 2014, making it a part of their official Amazon Prime services. Therefore, in solidarity with the striking Amazon workers, a few journalists and streamers are going to be performing a Twitch boycott on July 16. One such outlet is Waypoint, Vice’s gaming division. Editor-in-chief Austin Walker tweeted about the move yesterday, saying: “Some folks put the news about a transnational Amazon strike in front of us yesterday, glad to hear about it. As a heads up, we’ll be skipping our stream on Prime Day (the 16th) in solidarity.”
Hey! Some folks put the news about a transnational Amazon strike in front of us yesterday, glad to hear about it. As a heads up, we’ll be skipping our stream on Prime Day (the 16th) in solidarity.https://t.co/LqLoFiVKxh
— austin walker (@austin_walker) July 11, 2018
There have been a few other streamers that have expressed interest in the Twitch boycott on Prime Day, including CaseyExplosion on Twitter. It’s unclear as to what scale the boycott will be, but with larger-scale players like Waypoint taking part, the move is likely to gain some traction. The poor working conditions for Amazon employees have been known for some time now, and with the games community being such a large group of people, solidarity drives like this are bound to have some impact, no matter how small.
How small or big that impact will be, we’ll have to wait until July 16 to see. Something like this hasn’t actually happened in the games industry before, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation to see how it plays out.
