Thanks to its surveillance through Web Services, Amazon is effectively enabling Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain and deport. On the same day, simultaneous demonstrations took place in 8 American cities against Amazon’s collaboration with US immigration authorities. Therefore, they demand a reduction of the productivity rate, pay rise and improvement of working conditions. The Amazon employee Hibaq Mohamed declared in one interview that the workers hurt themselves because of exasperating working rhythms: if they do not reach the performance rates required, workers are punished and badly treated.
Despite the pledge by Amazon US to pay a salary of 15$ per hour for all its employees, with the expectation to stop any unrest while at the same time counteracting labor shortage and the high turn-over due to the severe labor conditions, the workers do not settle for what Amazon is willing to give in, but want to get what they asked for. In Minnesota, the Awod Center and other organizations called for a strike on Prime Day in the Shakopee warehouse, where since 2017 migrant and refugee workers, especially from Somalia and other East-African countries, who represent the majority of the employees, have been contesting harsh working conditions and the racist policies of Amazon.
#Amazon strike on prime day professional#
Not only workers and trade unions operating in Amazon, but also other organizations and professional trade unions supported the strikes. With resonating actions, the protest targeted the extreme fragmentation of working and wage conditions which puts workers against each other. In Germany, France, Poland, United Kingdom and United States, workers protested and went on strike when discounts cause a peak of sales and a considerable amount of extra-work in the warehouses, to protest the low wages, the unbearable level of exploitation and the system of feedbacks and performance rates. UNI coordinates a global alliance of unions representing Amazon workers.With a transnational wave of strikes in occasion of Prime Day on the 15 th and 16 th of July, workers at Amazon have indelibly soiled the glittering façade of one of the main global companies of our times, paving the way for future struggles.
#Amazon strike on prime day full#
“It is time for Amazon in Germany-and everywhere it operates-to negotiate with workers to ensure decent wages, safe jobs and the full protections of collective bargaining.” “Amazon can discount prices, but the company cannot continue to discount workers’ labour or their contributions to the company’s success,” said Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union. Ver.di members at Amazon have been on strike many times before over pay and conditions. It is long overdue to give workers appreciation and material security, emphasised ver.di’s Nutzenberger: “Only collective agreements protect workers and end Amazon’s arbitrariness!” However, because of longer working hours and low-to-no special payments such as Christmas and holiday bonuses, Amazon employees’ incomes often remain several hundred euros less than workers in comparable companies covered by collective agreements. “The active colleagues who have been fighting for a collective agreement at Amazon for years deserve our respect for the courage they keep showing in this dispute-despite the pressure from the employer,” said ver.di national executive board member Stefanie Nutzenberger.Īfter years of worker strikes and organizing, Amazon has increased hourly wages.
Workers took additional actions in other warehouses around the country. Walk offs occurred in Graben near Augsburg, Leipzig, Koblenz, Rheinberg, Werne and Bad Hersfeld (two locations). online retailer to recognize the collective agreements for the retail and mail order industries as well as “Good and Healthy Work.” Ver.di, Germany’s service workers’ union, wants the U.S. Prime Day is an annual promotion where Amazon offers price reductions on selected goods. Calling for a collective agreement at Amazon’s German warehouses, ver.di members at seven distribution centres went on a Prime Day strike, starting overnight on 10 July.
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