For collective agreement in NRW: Amazon employees strike before "Prime Day"

For years, the Verdi services union has been demanding that Amazon participate in collective bargaining agreements, but the mail order company doesn’t want anything to do with it. Shortly before the “Prime Day” discount battle, the union is now calling on employees in North Rhine-Westphalia to walk out.

With a view to the “Prime Day” sales campaign taking place for the second time this year at the online retailer Amazon, the Verdi services union has called for a strike at two logistics centers in North Rhine-Westphalia. Verdi announced that employees in the centers in Werne and Dortmund would be asked to stop working from Wednesday to Thursday at the beginning of the night shift.

The union is demanding that Amazon recognize the collective bargaining agreements in the retail sector in North Rhine-Westphalia and conclude a “good and healthy work” collective agreement. An Amazon spokesman referred on Wednesday evening to a salary increase that all employees at the company’s logistics locations would receive from September. He also stated that Amazon does not expect any impact on its customers.

As early as July, Verdi had called for a strike at several Amazon distribution centers on the occasion of the first “Prime Day” this year. The “Prime Day”, which is now taking place for the second time in a year, brings Amazon “an enormous increase in sales and a lot of publicity”, but for the employees it means “an increased workload and the associated time pressure and rush at work”, explained Silke Zimmer, Head of the trade department for Verdi in North Rhine-Westphalia.

There is “no respite for the employees before they go full throttle into the Christmas business”. This is at the expense of health. The Amazon employees “more than deserve to be paid according to collective agreements,” added Zimmer. This means “recognizing their achievements and securing their salaries for the future”. The special “Prime Day” sales days, during which Amazon says it gives exclusive discounts to customers of its “Prime” service, will take place on October 11th and 12th.