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News & Commentary

January 3, 2025

Esther Ritchin

Esther Ritchin is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s news, the holiday season strikes against Amazon and Starbucks both conclude, and Amazon mandates a full-time return to office for its corporate employees.

The strike against Amazon, held at warehouses in the five days leading up to Christmas Eve, ended as scheduled. The strike was officially held at nine different warehouses, but there were protests and demonstrations at at least 200 locations throughout the strike period. While the strike has concluded, the Teamsters “will never let up and workers will never stop fighting for their rights at Amazon.” The complaints that brought workers to strike, including safety violations and unjust pay, continue. Starbucks workers also concluded their strike as scheduled at the end of the holiday season.

In related news, yesterday, the first workday of the new year, marked Amazon’s new mandatory return-to-office policy, five days a week, for its corporate employees. Many employees are frustrated by the policy, especially after inconsistent messaging from leadership on remote work and rumors of Amazon using this policy as a way to lower their number of corporate employees without having to lay people off.

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