Amazon warehouse workers across the world used Black Friday to protest against the company’s labour policies.
From Germany and France to the United States, from India to Japan and the United Kingdom, Amazon’s employees downed their tools or joined marches on Friday demanding better working conditions and fair wages.
In the UK, hundreds of members of the GMB union are staging strikes or protests at a number of Amazon warehouses, including a protest outside its fulfilment centre in Coventry.
“We are here today to tell Amazon [that] if you want to keep your empire going, talk to GMB to improve the pay and conditions of workers,” said Amanda Gearing, a senior organiser at the GMB. “Amazon workers are overworked, underpaid and they have had enough.”
The actions coincided with one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Black Friday, when significant discounts push sales, leading to additional stress on retail and warehouse workers.
Profits at Amazon Services UK, the group’s warehouse and logistics operation, which is thought to employ more than half of the company’s UK workforce of close to 75,000 people, have soared by 60% to £204m, with revenues growing by just over a quarter to more than £6bn last year.
Workers are demanding a wage rise from £10.50 to £15 an hour as the cost of living crisis hits household budgets.
In Germany, there were demonstrations at nine out of Amazon’s 20 warehouses in the country, although on Friday morning, the company said the vast majority of its employees in the country were working as normal.
A spokesperson for Amazon said: “These groups represent a variety of interests, and while we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing on these important matters, you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously.”
“We are inventing and investing significantly in all these areas, playing a significant role in addressing climate change with the climate pledge commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040, continuing to offer competitive wages and great benefits, and inventing new ways to keep our employees safe and healthy in our operations network, to name just a few.”
