The GMB union has held protests at Amazon warehouses around the country, and at the company HQ in London, on the first day of its union recognition ballot in Coventry. As the union says, this is a “bid to force Amazon to recognise a union for the first time” in the country.
There have been more than 30 days of strike action at the Coventry site in the last 18 months, fighting over pay and conditions, and for recognition. Strikes have also spread to the Sutton Coldfield site in Birmingham.
GMB filed legal proceedings in April, due to Amazon bosses’ “widespread attempts to coerce staff to cancel their trade union membership”.
Workers have previously told the Socialist: “Managers put posters targeting the union in the toilets, flyers on boards and in the canteen, saying: ‘We want to hear your voice’. Managers said: ‘We want to talk with you, the union wants to talk for you’. But the bosses have heard our voices plenty of times, and nothing’s changed!”
Amazon protests that it is a good employer. But Jeff Bezos didn’t get to be the world’s second richest person by accident. His wealth went up by $15.5 billion in May this year. That’s approximately $98 million an hour extra – rather more than the £13-an-hour starter rate paid to UK Amazon workers “depending on location”.
Amazon workers will now be watching to see what Keir Starmer’s new Labour government says about workers’ rights, as well as the minimum wage. GMB’s demand is for £15 an hour – they should be pressing that demand immediately, along with repeal of all the anti-trade union laws and workers’ rights from day one of employment. These events at Amazon are now on Starmer’s watch.
