December 4, 2023

Black Friday strikes: Unions organize globally against Amazon

Make Amazon Pay is the name of the campaign launched unequivocally by 80 organizations that want to organize strikes and actions in 30 countries in November.

At the campaign summit on Friday, October 27, 2023 in Manchester, Great Britain, which was also attended by Verdi’s envoy, Strikes were announced.

It should be in the next few days Thousands of Amazon employees are on strike in Great Britain. Participating organizations, including Verdi, plan to peak campaigns around Black Friday.

What is Amazon Pay Make?

Make Amazon Payment It is a campaign founded by Uni Global Union, a global federation of trade unions, and Progressive International, in 2020. The campaign is supported by about 400 representatives around the world, including US Senator Bernie Sanders.

In Germany, Verdi works with the global union Uni, among others.

What does Make Amazon Pay want?

Make Amazon Pay essentially seeks to achieve five goals, one of which is related to income. In addition to improvements in wages and working conditions, the campaign also calls on Amazon to stop using temporary workers, allow unionization, and operate more sustainably.
The campaign also calls on Amazon to “pay something back to the community.” This broadly defined request covers various points, from paying more taxes in countries where economic activity occurs to halting the development of devices like the Ring doorbell. Ring considers the campaign a “mass surveillance device.”

the Amazon’s use of temporary workers in Saudi Arabia has come under sharp criticism recentlyafter an investigative research group led by The Guardian described the working conditions of those affected as modern slavery.

The balance of hits so far is clear, and Verdi has been repeatedly criticized for having little impact

In the middle of this year, the newspaper Hessenschau wrote in a review of ten years of Verdi strikes: “Even ten years after Verdi’s first strikes at Amazon, the union has yet to enforce a collective agreement. Verdi does not see this as a failure.” On the other hand, trade experts speak of it as an indictment.

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What Amazon pays its employees

The discussion about the potential gain results largely from Amazon’s refusal to accept collective agreements. Ideas also differ when it comes to employee classification: Verdi sees employees as retail employees, while Amazon sees them as logistics employees.

Amazon regional director Norbert Brandau commented to the newspaper Hessenschau in May: “Amazon shows every day that it is possible to be a good employer even without a collective agreement. We are working on this with the works councils and employees. We offer good salaries, social benefits and opportunities.” Development.”

Excerpt from Amazon information about profit opportunities in Germany

  • The starting wages for all logistics employees in Germany equate to a gross of 14 euros per hour.
  • Annual earnings after two years on a full-time basis: with a gross average of around €37,000.
The perfect ones Information about wages, fringe benefits, and health care at Amazon It can be found on the Aboutamazon blog.