Amazon hit by strikes, protests across Europe during Black Friday trade

LONDON – Amazon workers came out on strike at multiple locations across Europe on Nov 24 as protests against the e-commerce giant’s working practices picked up pace on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

“Make Amazon Pay”, a campaign coordinated by the UNI Global Union, said strikes and protests would take place in more than 30 countries from Nov 24 on Black Friday – the day after the United States Thanksgiving holiday, when many retailers slash prices to boost sales – until Nov 27.

Originally known for crowds lining up at big-box stores in the United States, Black Friday has increasingly moved online and gone global, fuelled in part by Amazon, which advertises 10 days of holiday discounts in 2023 from Nov 17 to Nov 27.

In Germany, Amazon’s second-biggest market by sales in 2022, around 250 workers were on strike at a Leipzig warehouse and around 500 at an Amazon warehouse in Rheinberg, trade union Verdi said on Nov 24.

The union said a 24-hour strike across five fulfilment centres in Germany started at midnight on Nov 23 to demand a collective wage agreement.

An Amazon spokesperson in Germany said workers are paid fair wages, with a starting salary of more than €14 (S$20) an hour, and have additional benefits. The spokesperson said deliveries of Black Friday orders will be reliable and timely.

More than 200 workers were striking on Nov 24 at Amazon’s warehouse in Coventry, England, as part of a long-running dispute over pay.

Mr Nick Henderson, a worker at the Coventry warehouse, which acts as a logistics hub for Amazon to process products to send to other warehouses, said he was striking for higher pay and better working conditions.

The striking workers were chanting their demand for a pay rise to £15 (S$25) an hour.

An Amazon spokesperson in Britain said minimum starting pay is between £11.80 and £13 an hour depending on location, and would increase to £12.30 to £13 an hour from April 2024.

Amazon said the strike would not cause disruption.

Italian trade union CGIL called for a Black Friday strike at the Castel San Giovanni warehouse, while Spanish union CCOO called for Amazon warehouse and delivery workers to stage a one-hour strike on each shift on Cyber Monday, the last day of Amazon’s 10-day sale.

Amazon’s parcel lockers – located in train stations, supermarket carparks and street corners, and used by many customers to receive orders – are also being targeted.

In France, anti-globalisation organisation Attac is encouraging activists to plaster them with posters and ticker tape, potentially blocking delivery workers and customers from being able to open them.

Attac, which calls Black Friday a “celebration of overproduction and overconsumption”, said it expects the protest to be wider than in 2022, when it estimates 100 Amazon lockers across France were targeted.

Amazon has remained popular in Europe even as rivals like Shein and Temu have seen rapid growth. Its app had 146 million active users in Europe in October, compared with 64 million for Shein and 51 million for Temu. REUTERS