Amazon: Coventry workers balloted for strike action in UK first

Local, national, international and oddball news stories

Amazon: Coventry workers balloted for strike action in UK first

Postby dutchman » Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:56 pm

Firm refuses to engage with unions but faces pressure from ‘associates’ fighting for better pay and conditions

Image

Hundreds of Amazon workers at the company’s vast warehouse in Coventry hope to make history next week by becoming the first in the UK to vote for strike action against the delivery giant, which refuses to engage with unions.

Workers at the site, on land formerly occupied by Jaguar Land Rover, staged an informal walkout earlier this year, after being told their annual pay rise would be 50p an hour, taking the basic rate to £10.50.

With the backing of the GMB union, they have now become the first Amazon workers in the UK to take part in a formal ballot for strike action, demanding £15 an hour.

“It’s about making a stand for the workers,” said senior GMB organiser, Amanda Gearing. “This is not something that we’ve said, ‘you’ve got to do this’. This is them saying, ‘we want to be able to take a protest that the management will listen to’.”

Staff – called “associates” by Amazon – describe being obliged to stand throughout 10-hour shifts, and subjected to rigorous targets.

If the ballot results in a vote for industrial action, they are poised to set strike dates for the key pre-Christmas period.

GMB members at the firm’s Doncaster warehouse are balloting simultaneously, and would coordinate any action with Coventry, though the union concedes its recruitment drive there is at an earlier stage.

Amazon is facing mounting pressure worldwide, from workers fighting for better pay and conditions.

Derrick Palmer, vice president of the Amazon Labor Union, which recently won a recognition battle at an Amazon fulfilment centre in Staten Island, New York, joined the Coventry workers at an online rally on Tuesday.

Describing Amazon’s anti-union tactics, including sending staff text messages and emails urging them not to sign up, he said, “we kept pushing on, because we knew that Amazon wasn’t going to stop.

“We knew we had to do something unorthodox, something unheard of, to beat a giant like Amazon. Collectively we made a lot of noise and we stuck together through thick and thin, and ultimately that was how we were able to defeat them.”

The spontaneous stoppage at the Coventry centre in August, which saw frustrated staff congregate in the canteen during working hours, coincided with similar action in other fulfilment centres, at locations including Tilbury, in Essex, and Rugeley, in Staffordshire.

Image
User avatar
dutchman
Site Admin
 
Posts: 50296
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am
Location: Spon End

Re: Amazon: Coventry workers balloted for strike action in UK first

Postby dutchman » Fri Oct 21, 2022 4:12 am

Amazon workers fail to reach strike threshold in historic UK ballot

Image

The first ever ballot for strikes at a UK Amazon warehouse site has failed to reach the legal threshold for industrial action.

According to union GMB, it was missed by just three votes, despite 99% of those who took part backing action.

UK law states at least 50% of members entitled to vote must do so for strike ballots to be valid.

Amazon said it had increased pay and offered a "comprehensive benefits package" to employees in Coventry.

Some workers at the Lyon's Park site in the city took part in informal protests earlier in the year after an "insulting" pay offer.

"Amazon workers are angry. This is just a stepping stone on their journey in the fight for £15 an hour," said Amanda Gearing, from the union.

"GMB Is now talking with activists on site to set out how we take that fight forward," she said.

The union said it had long campaigned for official recognition at the online retail giant in a bid to help improve the company's record on health and safety issues, a move backed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday.

Speaking to delegates at TUC Congress in Brighton, he said the online retailer should have a "unionised workforce".

Amazon says its pay offer starting at a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45 an hour represented a "29% increase in the minimum hourly wage paid to Amazon associates since 2018".

"Employees are also offered comprehensive benefits that are worth thousands more, including private medical insurance, life assurance, subsidised meals and an employee discount."

Seasonal employees would also soon receive an additional one-off payment of up to £500 "as an extra thank you", the company said.

:bbc_news:
User avatar
dutchman
Site Admin
 
Posts: 50296
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am
Location: Spon End

Re: Amazon: Coventry workers balloted for strike action in UK first

Postby dutchman » Sat Nov 26, 2022 12:07 am

Coventry Amazon workers stage Black Friday pay protest

Image

Dozens of Amazon workers have joined a protest outside the company's Coventry warehouse on Black Friday.

GMB union members have been asking for improved pay and conditions, calling an offer of a pay rise starting at 50p per hour insulting.

They want their hourly pay to rise from £10 an hour to £15.

Amazon has refused to recognise trade unions and said workers' pay had risen by 29% since 2018. It also said staff would get a Christmas bonus of £500.

The demonstration is being held outside an Amazon warehouse which stores items and then supplies them to the company's fulfilment centres.

Amanda Gearing, GMB senior organiser, said it was "disgraceful that they're not supporting Amazon workers through this time" and accused the company of treating workers like "robots".

She said she wanted to see safety improvements within the factory and warned there could be walkouts if the matter was not resolved, despite the lack of formal union recognition.

In August, the GMB said about 100 workers took part in a sit-in protest at the canteen of the warehouse at the Lyon's Park centre, Coventry, over a pay increase offer of 35p per hour.

Amazon said it offered "competitive pay" and gave workers "comprehensive benefits" including private medical insurance, life assurance, subsidised meals and an employee discount.

:bbc_news:
User avatar
dutchman
Site Admin
 
Posts: 50296
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am
Location: Spon End

Re: Amazon: Coventry workers balloted for strike action in UK first

Postby dutchman » Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:11 pm

Amazon workers in Coventry vote for strike action

Image

Amazon workers at the company's warehouse in Coventry have voted to take strike action in what is believed to be a UK first.

The GMB union said hundreds of workers voted to walk out over a 50 pence per hour pay offer.

A majority of more than 98% of workers voted to strike on a ballot turnout of more than 63%, the union said.

Amazon has previously said it offered "competitive pay" and gave workers "comprehensive benefits".

The ballot shut on Friday, but any industrial action is likely to take place in the new year. Workers had wanted their hourly pay to rise from £10 an hour to £15.

Amanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, said the workers were making history by being the first Amazon workers in the UK to take part in a formal strike.

"The fact that they are being forced to go on strike to win a decent rate of pay from one of the world's most valuable companies should be a badge of shame for Amazon," she said.

"Amazon can afford to do better. It's not too late to avoid strike action; get round the table with GMB to improve the pay and conditions of workers."

:bbc_news:
User avatar
dutchman
Site Admin
 
Posts: 50296
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am
Location: Spon End

Re: Amazon: Coventry workers balloted for strike action in UK first

Postby rebbonk » Sat Dec 17, 2022 2:38 pm

How long will it take to recover the money the strikers lose? - Nobody wins in a strike!
Of course it'll fit; you just need a bigger hammer.
User avatar
rebbonk
 
Posts: 65580
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:01 am


Return to News

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests

  • Ads