Amazon.com Inc workers came out on strike at multiple locations across Europe yesterday as protests against the US e-commerce giant’s working practices picked up pace on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
“Make Amazon Pay,” a global campaign coordinated by the UNI Global Union, said strikes and protests would take place in more than 30 countries from so-called “Black Friday” through Monday.
Many retailers slash prices to boost sales on Black Friday, the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday.
Photo: Reuters
Originally known for crowds lining up at big-box stores in the US, the event has increasingly moved online and gone global, fueled in part by Amazon, which advertises 10 days of holiday discounts this year from Friday last week to Monday next week.
In Germany, Amazon’s second-biggest market by sales last year, workers at five fulfillment centers in Bad Hersfeld, Dortmund, Koblenz, Leipzig and Rheinberg started a 24-hour strike at midnight on Thursday to demand a collective wage agreement, trade union Verdi said.
An Amazon spokesperson in Germany said workers are paid fair wages, with a starting salary of more than 14 euros (US$15.27) an hour, and have additional benefits. The spokesperson said deliveries of Black Friday orders would be reliable and timely.
More than 200 workers were striking yesterday at Amazon’s warehouse in Coventry, England as part of a long-running dispute over pay.
Nick Henderson, a worker at the Coventry warehouse, which acts as a logistics hub for Amazon to process products to send to other warehouses, said he was striking for higher pay and better working conditions.
The striking workers were chanting their demand for a pay rise to ￡15 (US$18.69) an hour.
An Amazon UK spokesperson said minimum starting pay is between ￡11.80 and ￡13 an hour depending on location, and would increase to ￡12.30 to ￡13 an hour from April next year. Amazon said the strike would not cause disruption.
Italian trade union CGIL called for a Black Friday strike at the Castel San Giovanni warehouse, while Spanish union CCOO called for Amazon warehouse and delivery workers to stage a one-hour strike on each shift on “Cyber Monday,” the last day of Amazon’s 10-day sale.
Amazon’s parcel lockers — located in train stations, supermarket car parks and street corners, and used by many customers to receive orders — are also being targeted.
In France, anti-globalization organization Attac is encouraging activists to plaster them with posters and ticker tape, potentially blocking delivery workers and customers from being able to open them.
Attac, which calls Black Friday a “celebration of overproduction and overconsumption,” said it expects the protest to be wider than last year, when it estimates 100 Amazon lockers across France were targeted.
Amazon has remained popular in Europe even as rivals such as Shein and Temu have seen rapid growth. Amazon’s app had 146 million active users in Europe last month, compared to 64 million for Shein and 51 million for Temu, data.ai’s data shows.
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