On Black Friday, stores and retailers attract their customers with bargains and discounts. The union Verdi wants to use the day to draw attention to poor working conditions and calls for a strike.
The standoff at the Amazon site in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse, began work on the night shift and will continue until midnight, said the Verdi state district of Hesse.
With the offer week around the Black Friday as a prelude to the Christmas rush, it goes into the „year-end spurt, for the employees the most stressful time, including overtime,“ said union secretary Mechthild Middeke.
„Employees are a big focus, especially on a day like Black Friday, and workers‘ pay has to be better rewarded with higher pay and a collectively agreed Christmas bonus.“
Verdi fights for years that the Amazon employees get a collective agreement and paid by the tariff for retail and mail order. Amazon rejects this so far.
Black Friday and the subsequent Cyber Monday are among the best selling days of the year in retail. The idea comes from the US, where stores start the holiday shopping season with large discounts the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday. In Germany, the German Trade Association (HDE) expects an increase of 15 percent and a turnover of 2.4 billion this year on both days.
