Amazon: Trade union calling for 4-day workers strike in Germany

Amazon workers from six of its sites in Germany were called to go on a 4-day strike. It was Verdi, a trade union based in Berlin, that called for the workers to walk out.

The call for Amazon’s strike in Germany

The union asked the workers to go on strike from Sunday evening and up to the first three days of this week. As per Reuters, the move is an attempt to force Amazon’s U.S. headquarters to allow collective bargaining agreements.

“Amazon is making a mint in the coronavirus crisis,” Orhan Akman, Verdi representative, said. “For this reason alone, wage evasion must be stopped there.”

The trade union wants Amazon to increase the pay of workers stationed in the mail order and retail by 4.5%. Vardi called on workers at Amazon locations in Werne, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Koblenz and two sites in Bad Hersfeld, for the walkout.

Germany is the second biggest market of Amazon, next to the United States, and this is not the first time that the company encounters a problem with its German unit. For years, Amazon has been battling workers’ unions in Germany, and the issue is always the same, which is the pay and work conditions for workers, especially in logistics.

Since 2013, the unions have been staging strikes for the company to grant their requests. On the contrary, despite the complaints, Amazon insisted that it offers superb pay and benefits.

Bernie Sanders joins workers’ union as conflict with Amazon deepens

Meanwhile, the internal problems with Amazon regarding work conditions and pay are not just happening in Germany but in the U.S. and Italy as well. In America, there is an ongoing drive to unionize Amazon workers in Alabama, and siding with the employees, Senator Bernie Sanders expressed his support by joining them in their call.

Aside from the senator, other personalities such as Danny Glover have also joined the Amazon workers’ petition to unionize. If the workers’ will be given the go signal to form a union, this will be the first one in the U.S. under Jeff Bezos’s company that has 800,000 employees here.

“If Amazon workers in Alabama can prevail in forming a union, it can be done all over this country,” Sanders said. He also pointed out that Amazon is just showing a growing economic inequality since Jeff Bezos just continues to get rich even during the pandemic while his workers can’t even get a pay raise or better working conditions.

“All I want to know is why the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, is spending millions trying to prevent workers from organizing a union so they can negotiate for better wages, benefits and working conditions,” Sanders tweeted.

Finally, Amazon argued that with its $15 minimum hourly pay, it is already providing more compared to other companies. Thus, it stated that most of its employees don’t want a union.