Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is facing its first-ever strike in the United Kingdom as workers at its Coventry fulfillment center walked out on Wednesday over pay and working conditions. The latest strike in a wave of industrial action across the country resulted from a dispute over a 5% pay increase last year, which union members say is well below the rise in the cost of living.
Amazon UK’s GMB union is fighting for a pay raise greater than the company’s offer of 50 pence (61 cents) an hour. Thousands of workers at the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment center in Coventry, about 100 miles from London near Birmingham, walked off the job for one day.
“Amazon staff who worked through tough conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic are just trying to get decent pay,” said Amanda Gearing, a senior organizer with the GMB union. Another significant issue is the performance targets set by an algorithm that puts extra pressure on workers.
Food and energy prices have soared in the United Kingdom, pushing consumer prices up 10.5% in the past year. Across the economy, workers are seeing their living standards plummet, prompting the country’s biggest wave of industrial action in decades. Taking inflation into account, UK wages might drop to 2006 levels this year.
With Amazon’s pay increase, Coventry workers now earn £10.50 ($12.92). However, workers are asking for £15 ($18.49) an hour, which the GMB union said would be in line with pay at Amazon in the United States. Starting pay for warehouse workers in the United States averages over $19 an hour after the company’s latest raise in September.
“They’re taking on one of the world’s biggest companies to fight for a decent standard of living,” said GMB senior organizer Stuart Richards. “After six months of ignoring all requests to listen to workers’ concerns, GMB urges Amazon UK bosses to do the right thing and give workers a proper pay rise.”
There are 2,000 workers employed at Amazon’s Coventry fulfillment center, one of 30 in the United Kingdom. The union says 98% of those who participated in the vote decided to strike, which amounts to only 178 employees. However, despite the strike, Amazon claims that it does not expect it to impact deliveries.
Amazon has been reversing recent expansions as it faces economic uncertainty, and this month, it announced 18,000 layoffs. High food and energy prices have driven inflation to its highest level in decades, prompting picketing among Amazon employees. The cost-of-living crisis has forced nurses, ambulance drivers, train drivers, border staff, driving instructors, bus drivers, teachers, and postal workers to leave their jobs in recent months in order to demand higher wages.
In other parts of Europe, including Spain and Germany, Amazon workers routinely protest and walk out to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Organizing walkouts on Black Friday last year under the campaign “Make Amazon Pay,” unions and advocacy groups coordinated the action in more than 30 countries.
Among other things, the organizers of the campaign wanted the company to raise hourly wages, extend sick leave, and end its anti-union efforts. Following a trash compactor fire at a New York warehouse, dozens of workers were suspended after protesting and refusing to return to work.
It’s not just Amazon workers in the UK who are striking for better pay and working conditions. Amazon workers worldwide have been demanding better treatment from the company, citing grueling working conditions, low income, and a lack of job security. The strikes in the UK are just the latest in a series of actions by Amazon workers globally, highlighting the challenges faced by the company as it continues to grow at a rapid pace.
