Amazon's annual shopping holiday, one of its biggest retail days for the year, was met with a strike in its facilities in Germany. Workers launched a protest during the annual event, complaining about the company's working conditions and underwhelming pay.
The worker protests in Germany, under the banner "No more discount on our incomes," was launched on Sunday at Amazon's facilities throughout the country. Various strikes were held at Amazon's facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Graben, Koblenz, Leipzig, Rheinberg, and Werne. Workers held the protest through Monday, aimed at coinciding with the Amazon Prime Day event.
Amazon's Prime Day event this year is expected to generate over $5.8 billion in sales for the company. Last year, the company generated an estimated $3.9 billion during the annual event.
According to German union Verdi, Amazon's offering of huge discounts to its customers during the annual celebration, while giving workers relatively low pay, is clearly unacceptable. The wages employees earn are reportedly lacking, with most barely able to survive with the amount being given. The union is demanding for Amazon to strike a deal with it and to agree to certain terms that would be binding across the country's retail sector.
Verdi's retail specialist Orhan Akman mentioned in an interview that Amazon has to agree to certain collective agreements pertaining to worker's salaries and wages. According to local reports, more than 2,000 people including Amazon workers and members of labor groups attended the strikes. Amazon currently employs more than 18,000 people in Germany, with plans to add around 2,800 more permanent jobs by the end of 2019.
The Prime Day strikes are the latest of numerous protests against Amazon's treatment of workers. The company has been embroiled in various disputes with German trade unions in the past few years, mainly about its low wages and unacceptable working conditions.
In response to the strikes, Amazon stated that the protest should have no effect on its operations even during the shopping holiday. The retail giant also denied that it underpaid workers. An Amazon spokesperson told reporters that the company actually pays at the upper of the wage scale in the country, higher than other comparable jobs.
The company argues that it does not need to have a collective agreement as it has proven itself to be a responsible and fair employer.
Apart from Germany, workers from other European countries are also reportedly planning to hold protests, demanding that the company improve its working conditions and provide workers with higher wages. According to the UNI Global Union, a federate of worker unions, Amazon workers in the UK, Poland, and Spain had already held protests at the company's facilities.
