In Germany, the ver.di trade union is once again using the holiday season in the Amazon smoldering wage dispute to put pressure on the online mail-order retailer. Ver.di called the workers in two logistics centers to strike one week before the festival.
Employees of the center in Werne, North Rhine-Westphalia, are to leave work by tomorrow, the union said today. In Leipzig, the protests are to last until Christmas. „We are well prepared for Christmas,“ said Amazon, „customers do not have to worry about their gifts.“
Union sees „provocation“
„We have allowed Amazon time and again to react to our demand for collective bargaining,“ said ver.di representative Thomas Schneider in Leipzig. That Amazon rejects these negotiations is a „provocation“.
„We will see if the promise to customers to deliver on time by Christmas Eve on time is strong.“ The protests were decentralized and spontaneous in the distribution centers, a union spokesman said. It is possible that there are also at other locations to standoffs.
Quarrel since 2013
The tariff conflict at Amazon has been going on in Germany since 2013. Ver.di calls for employees in the German Amazon shipping centers tariff rules, as they are customary in retail and mail order. Amazon, however, takes logistics industry agreements as a benchmark in which less is paid.
In addition, ver.di is increasingly dealing with the high pressure to create more and more in ever shorter time. The US company repeatedly emphasizes that the company is a „responsible employer“ even without a collective agreement.
