News...
                        sponsored by

German union launches new strike at Amazon warehouse

Send a link to a friend  Share

[December 08, 2014]  BERLIN (Reuters) - Workers at a German warehouse of Amazon.com <AMZN.O> went on strike on Monday as labor union Verdi sought to squeeze the online retailer in the busy pre-Christmas period in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

Verdi said in a statement it had called out workers to strike at a distribution center in Bad Hersfeld, saying Amazon was increasing order volume and pressure on workers with special offers ahead of Christmas.

Verdi expects up to 450 workers to join the strike on Monday, a spokeswoman said. The union said it would keep up the pressure as long as Amazon did not meet its demands.

Amazon said the vast majority of workers had not walked off the job and were working hard to meet customer expectations. It said its deliveries should not be disrupted as it can draw on a European network of 28 warehouses in seven countries.

The U.S. company employs almost 10,000 warehouse staff at nine distribution centers in Germany, its second-biggest market behind the United States, plus more than 10,000 seasonal workers.

Verdi wants Amazon to raise pay for workers at its distribution centers in accordance with collective bargaining agreements across the mail order and retail industry in Germany and has organized several stoppages since early 2013.

[to top of second column]

Amazon, however, has rejected the demand, arguing that it regards warehouse staff as logistics workers and says they receive above-average pay by the standards of that industry.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson, editing by Louise Heavens)

[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

< Top Stories index

Back to top