One of Germany’s largest unions has called on workers in six Amazon warehouses in the country to strike on Monday and Tuesday for better working conditions.
The strikes coincide with Equal Pay Day and International Women’s Day respectively. The Verdi union said the timing of the industrial action underscores the gap between “public image and reality” on Amazon.
Verdi’s call for strikes at two warehouses in Bad Hersfeld, as well as in Rheinberg, Werne, Koblenz and Leipzig, has been followed by several similar wage strikes in recent years.
Why are Amazon employees on strike?
The union’s main demand is for Amazon to formally recognize collective bargaining agreements in the retail and mail order sectors, a request that Verdi has made several times over the past two years.
Verdi said that Amazon is presented as “an organization in which diversity and equality are highly valued.” However, Verdi said, the reality is that “a computer algorithm” determines the expectations required of an employee.
“The individual, his performance and the personal circumstances of the workers are being ignored,” said Mechthild Middeke, Verdi’s strike leader in Bad Hersfeld.
The consequences are “work stress and pressure for performance,” Middeke added. He said this particularly affects those who have extra weights outside of work. “Those [employees] they are often women, for example unmarried mothers “.
How did Amazon react?
The American online retailer stressed on Monday, however, that the opportunities for professional development on Amazon are many, regardless of the gender of the employees.
In response to Verdi’s demands, the global tech giant insisted that even without a fixed wage agreement, it was a good employer. “Amazon already offers great salaries, great bonuses and great career opportunities in a safe and modern work environment,” an Amazon spokesman said Monday.
Salaries for logistics workers had already risen last summer, the spokesman added. As a result, “every year, everyone on Amazon earns at least 12 euros [$12.98] gross per hour plus additives. “
Germany is Amazon’s second largest market after the United States. The online retailer said the planned strikes would not affect the delivery of goods to its customers.
fh / rt (AFP, Reuters)
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