Just in time for Black Friday, the labor union Verdi calls on employees in Germany to go on a three-day strike at seven of Amazon’s German distribution centers. This is intended to persuade the online retailer to participate in tariff wages. With the start of the night shift from Wednesday to Thursday, employees in Leipzig, Bad Hersfeld, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben near Augsburg and Koblenz were called on a three-day strike, Verdi said.
The goal is the acknowledgment of the industry-wide collective pay agreements of the retail and mail-order industry by Amazon as well as the signing of a collective agreement for safe and healthy labor. Amazon says that none of the union’s activities in the past had an impact on the deliveries to the consumer. Parcels would arrive on time, and the majority of employees would take care of customer orders as usual. In view of the planned new Verdi protests, an Amazon spokesperson said that the teams were currently “concentrating on getting the packages to the customer.”
According to Amazon, the company operates 15 logistics centers at 14 locations in Germany with around 16,000 permanent employees.
