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More strikes at Amazon

December 17, 2013

Employees at logistics centers of US retail giant Amazon have continued their strike action as they hope to see management agree to talks on higher wages. Unions said it might extend the walkouts beyond this week.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Aar2
Amazon workers on strike in Germany
Image: Reuters/Lisi Niesner

Amazon workers continued their strikes on Tuesday at two locations, upholding their demand the company should accept a collective bargaining agreement for the mail order and retail sector.

So far, Amazon has treated it staff as lower-paid logistics workers and insisted employees received above-average wages for that particular sector.

Following a day of massive walkouts at three logistics centers in Germany on Monday which saw a record 1,800 people participate, Amazon workers continued their strikes in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld, with employees in Leipzig saying they wouldn't stop before Friday.

Ratcheting up the pressure

The public-sector union Verdi said Tuesday industrial action could even be expanded right up to Christmas Eve.

Strike at Amazon in Germany

"We'll certainly have the stamina to do so, not just this week," a senior Verdi official, Stefanie Nutzenberger told the daily "Neue Passauer Presse." She added it was a scandal Amazon continued to decide arbitrarily how much it paid workers, and that at a time when employees were facing all the stress of a pre-Christmas season with extremely high parcel delivery volumes.

The current strike action in Germany had been supported by several US trade unions who staged a protest rally in front of Amazon's headquarters in Seattle.

hg/kms (dpa, AFP)