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Employees at online mail-order company Amazon in Germany stopped working at six locations when the night shift began on Monday. The strikes in Werne, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Koblenz and two places in Bad Hersfeld will last until Christmas Eve inclusive, as announced by the Ver.di union. She has about 1700 participants in the strike.
The union demands that Amazon sign the collective agreement of the German retailers. It’s a demand that Verdi has tried to enforce for years to no avail.
Stefanie Benefitberger, a member of the Ver.di federal board, has said that extensive store closures since last week due to lockdown in the corona pandemic has meant that order volume at mail order companies like Amazon has increased significantly again. Amazon deserves “a golden nose” in the current crisis.
While the American company continues to increase its billions in profits, “it refuses to pay its employees a collective agreement,” criticized the union. Instead, employees would be under even greater pressure because Amazon makes delivery promises despite the additional work. This is “inevitably at the expense of the health of the workforce, especially now in the conditions of the pandemic.”
Amazon claimed that the strike actions would have no impact on deliveries to customers: “The vast majority of employees work normally.” Amazon offers an environment “in which you can enjoy working, contribute and succeed,” emphasized EE-Group. In the current lockdown, Amazon is supporting tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses in Germany by allowing them to sell their products online.
