Amazon Go is an “existential threat” to millions of jobs, supermarket workers warn

When reports emerged earlier this week that Amazon is planning to open up to 3,000 cashierless Amazon Go stores by 2021, supermarket and grocery workers around the country held their breath. After all, developing thousands of new stores that lack human employees will undoubtedly pressure competitors like 7-Eleven, Walmart, and Safeway to cut back on their labor costs by adopting similar technology.

Today, the United Food and Commercial Food Workers International Union, representing over 1.2 million supermarket and retail workers in the U.S., struck back at Amazon with a statement, attacking the company as an “existential threat” that is opening the cashierless stores out of greed.

Here’s the full text of the statement:

It is time for America’s elected leaders to wake up to the economic threat Amazon poses to our economy.

Make no mistake, opening cashierless stores is not about convenience; rather, it is about greed.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon and deploying a business model that poses an existential threat to millions of American jobs, and it is time we are honest about the devastating impact this will have on our nation and tens of millions of hard-working American families.

A rep for Amazon did not return a request for comment.