Just in time for the online retailer’s Black Friday bonanza, Amazon
warehouse employees across Europe went on strike or are staging protests
today. According to the UNI Global Union, workers are demanding better
working conditions and wages and protesting Amazon’s refusal to
negotiate with them. “We are not robots,” the strikers are proclaiming.
The affected fulfillment centers are in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the
United Kingdom. UNI tells me that more than 2,400 workers in Spain and
Germany are on strike currently, with hundreds more in the other areas.
In the U.K., the British trade union GMB says five different warehouses
are holding protests. The group says it expects hundreds of employees to
take part.
“The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly
inhuman,” said GMB secretary general Tim Roache in a statement. “They
are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious, and being taken away in
ambulances.”
Workers in Spain, Italy, and Germany have all planned strikes.
“Amazon has not made worker safety a top priority,” said Fiorenzo
Molinari, a secretary at a local Italian trade union, in a provided
statement. “To us, it seems like the company only pretends to care. Our
warnings about unsafe conditions often go ignored, and our concerns
about our jobs get deflected.”
In a statement, Amazon pushed back at the union complaints.
“We are a fair and responsible employer. We believe in continuous
improvement across our network and maintain an open and direct dialogue
with our associates,” the company said. “We have invested over 27
billion EUR and created over 75,000 permanent jobs across Europe since
2010. These are good jobs with highly competitive pay, full benefits,
and innovative training programs.”
The statement added: “We provide safe and positive working conditions
and encourage anyone to come see for themselves by taking a tour at one
of our fulfillment centers.”
This isn’t the first time European Amazon workers have gone on strike.
On Prime Day last July, employees in Spain stopped working en masse.
Workers in other facilities around Europe decided to join the strike
too. And last year, facilities in Germany and Italy went on strike
during Black Friday too.
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