Amazon packages move on conveyor belts at fulfillment centers in the UK.
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Amazon workers are going on strike in Britain, in a move that marks the first formal industrial action in the country for the US tech giant.
The 24-hour strike began Wednesday minutes after midnight. Strikers are expected to picket outside the company’s site in Coventry in central England throughout the day. The GMB Union, which represents the workers involved, said it expects hundreds of employees to turn to the walkout.
Staff are unhappy with the 50 pence (56 US cents) hourly pay rise, equivalent to 5% and below inflation. Amazon introduced a salary increase last summer. But warehouse workers say it’s not keeping up with the rising cost of living. He wants the company to pay him a minimum of £15 an hour.
They also want better working conditions. Amazon workers have complained about long hours, as well as aggressive, technology-enhanced employee monitoring.
A spokesperson for the tech giant told CNBC in a statement that the staff involved represent “just a fraction of 1% of UK employees.” The spokeswoman said the pay of Amazon warehouse workers in the UK had risen by 29% since 2018, and indicated a one-off payment of £500 to staff to help with the cost of living crisis.
Wednesday’s action against frim is the first legally mandated strike in the UK, Amazon’s UK staff having previously stopped work spontaneously in August and on Black Friday in November.
‘Historical’
Darren Westwood, one of the Amazon workers participating in the strike, said it had “been a long road” to this point, which he described as “historic.”
“We’ve all seen the profits made during the pandemic — that’s what makes us even more angry,” Westwood told CNBC by phone. “We expected a better increase than we did.”
Inflation is on the rise due to rising energy costs and supply chain disruptions due to the war in Ukraine. Consumer prices rose 10.5% year-on-year in December; in response, the Bank of England has hiked interest rates to tame rising costs.
Westwood said he and his partner are in a reasonable financial position for now. But he worries about other employees, one of whom he says works 60 hours a week to make ends meet.
Wednesday’s action in the UK comes as Amazon unleashes thousands around the world. The company began laying off 18,000 workers last week in an attempt to dial back some of the expansion it carried out during the Covid-19 period and could face a recession in 2023.
Earlier this month, Amazon launched a consultation to close three sites in the UK, where it employs 1,200 people. The move is not part of Amazon’s 18,000 job cuts, according to the company.
Amazon has long been criticized for its labor shortages, with the company often accused of poor working conditions in its warehouses and delivery operations and squashing attempts by employees to unionize. In April, staff at the company’s Staten Island warehouse in New York became the first group in the US to vote to join a union.
“We stand in solidarity with the Amazon workers of Coventry fighting for higher pay and benefits,” Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union, which created the union, told CNBC. “Time for Amazon who claims to be the best company on Earth to come to the table and bargain well with the unions.”