Amazon workers in Italy planning a company-wide strike on March 22

Amazon in Italy will have its first company strike in the third week of this month. It was reported that the workers are planning a 24-hour protest after negotiations with headquarter office in the U.S. collapsed.

The failed talks with Amazon HQ

As per Reuters, the employees just want better working conditions, but apparently, the terms that they want were rejected by the company. It was the trade unions that disclosed the failed dialogue on Thursday, Mach 11.

The unions involved in the talks over Amazon staff work contracts in Italy include the National unions Filt Cgil, Uiltrasporti e Assoespressi and Fit Cisl. They said that the discussion did not even finish and “just came to an abrupt halt because of the company’s unwillingness to positively address the issues raised.”

“Amazon shows, with an unacceptable behavior, that it is chronically unavailable to confront workers’ representatives, in defiance of national contract rules and going against a system of fairness,” the unions added in a statement.

What the Amazon workers in Italy want

It was reported that the unions are asking Jeff Bezos’ company to modify some areas of the employees’ contracts. They want the terms on workloads, lunch vouchers, time shifts, contract conditions, travel pay, and bonuses to be revised. The drivers also requested for their working hours to be reduced.

The Independent reported that Amazon rejected the requests and accused the company of being unavailable for meetings with the workers’ unions. The above-mentioned national unions in Italy are backing the Amazon employees, and they added that the retail firm has been showing its unwillingness to positively address the issues of its staff.

Through its spokesperson, the company denied the allegations and claimed that Amazon had meetings with the unions in January, and it happened twice. In any case, since the disagreement with the workers was not solved, all the employees of Amazon Italy are expected to join the 24-hour walkout on March 22.

Meanwhile, although this is actually not the first time that Amazon workers in Italy are holding a strike, this month’s walkout is being treated as one because of the scale. The previous strikes were only attended by hundreds and this month’s event involves all the Amazon staff, which means 8,500 people are going to be there.