More than 30 anti-Amazon activists gathered on Monday January 10 in front of the Longvic site where the American online sales giant is building its new distribution agency. The company is accused of unfair competition and greenwashing.
Opponents of Amazon’s proposed establishment in Côte-d’Or are continuing their battle. Monday January 10, gathered under the banner of the national collective “Never again !”, associations, unions and citizens of Côte-d’Or mobilized against the arrival of the American giant in the Dijon metropolis. Present at the end of the morning on the site of the future delivery agency, which is scheduled to open in spring 2022, the activists denounced the company’s ecological footprint.
The multinational plans to equip its new 11,000 square meter building with a partially green roof and photovoltaic panels. The warehouse, installed in the place of a former industrial wasteland, should even obtain an ecological certification. But this commitment is far too insufficient according to the president of the Friends of the Earth. “It’s greenwashing. Amazon will have it [la certification, ndlr] before the warehouse is finished. You just have to do a number of things, typically a green roof, and it gives points “, regrets Stéphane Dupas, guest of the morning France Bleu Bourgogne / France 3 Bourgogne this Monday January 10.
With the arrival of the world leader in e-commerce in the Dijon metropolis, associations fear unfair competition between the American firm and local businesses. “There is somestudies which show that for a job created at Amazon, it is two jobs destroyed in the supermarket or six jobs destroyed in small businesses “, emphasizes Stéphane Dupas. For its part, Amazon France Logistics recalls that the opening of the delivery agency in Longvic “will make it possible to recruit approximately 50 people on permanent contracts and create more 200 additional permanent contracts in local partner delivery companies “.
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“Amazon, French champion of tax evasion” ; “Amazon, pay your taxes”. On the collective’s signs, the slogans also target the taxation of the American firm. To which the French branch of the company responds: “In 2020, compulsory levies linked to Amazon’s activities in France amounted to more than 600 million euros including more than 310 million euros in direct debits. “
The collective intends to carry out other actions in the coming weeks against the Amazon project. Last November, several environmental associations had already sent an open letter to the mayor of Dijon, François Rebsamen and to the mayor of Longvic, José Almeida. “But the letter had too little echo”, regrets a member of Friends of the Earth.
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