Our Take on Amazon’s Plans to Automate Its Workforce
October 20, 2025 | Press Releases
Today, the New York Times published an analysis of internal strategy documents from Amazon that disclose a plan to automate away half a million of its warehouse work jobs. Members of the Athena Coalition provided the following response:
Ryan Gerety, Director of the Athena Coalition:
“It is a profound public policy failure that a handful of enormously wealthy corporations like Amazon are poised to capture all the rewards from the development of advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, while workers and the public bear the brunt of a corporate-dominated economy that fails to provide quality jobs. Amazon’s plan to automate away half a million jobs and deceive the public about that reality is a continuation of a business model reliant on precarious, unsafe jobs and union busting. Questions of looming robots aside, Amazon has relentlessly and knowingly used technology to push workers to the point of injury for many years. Instead of focusing on robotics mergers and satisfying investors, Amazon should have invested in creating a safe and stable workplace. Our choice is clear: we must rebalance the economy to put more power in the hands of workers, break up monopolies like Amazon, and reorient technological innovation to benefit us all, not just a wealthy few at the top."
Beth Gutelius, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Urban Economic Development (University of Illinois Chicago), and national warehousing work expert:
“Amazon has failed to say the quiet part out loud, so the New York Times did. Amazon plans to automate 75% of its operations, which will transform the warehousing industry and leave hundreds of thousands of workers out of work without comparable options in the labor market. The company’s solution to its long track record of preventable workplace injuries appears to be to eliminate workers’ jobs, even as many of them will suffer the health impacts of working at Amazon far into the future. This is a good example of how not to do technological change.”
Sheheryar Kaoosji, Executive Director at Warehouse Worker Resource Center:
“The Inland Empire region has dozens of Amazon facilities and Amazon is the largest private employer in California. Amazon’s model of extracting labor and resources from our region and not investing in our people or communities fits directly into their vision to automate these jobs and step back from any responsibility to the people and communities that produce their profits. Amazon workers here and across the country deserve respect and safe working conditions, and consistent employment. Amazon’s plan to automate away jobs with no plan to support our communities besides ‘parades and Toys for Tots’ is why workers are organizing to hold this company accountable inside the warehouse and in the community.”
Context:
This reporting comes a day after the State of New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Amazon that accuses the company of unlawfully misclassifying its Flex delivery drivers as independent contractors and depriving drivers of wages and benefits. The use of these drivers to address delivery gaps that result from chronic understaffing in warehouses is a common practice at Amazon.
Earlier this month, Senator Bernie Sanders, the ranking member of the Health, Labor, and Pensions Committee, called for a sweeping economic agenda that would ensure workers, not billionaires, benefit from AI and automation. As the Trump administration enriches big tech billionaires, Senator Sanders called on Congress and members of the public to fight back.
The Athena Coalition is made up of 50+ organizations working together to break the dangerous stranglehold that corporations like Amazon have over our democracy, economy, and planet.