GERMANY: Amazon workers at a German logistics centre enter a third day of walkouts over pay, demanding a labour agreement and "better working conditions" as Christmas orders peak

Record ID: 341235

  • Title: GERMANY: Amazon workers at a German logistics centre enter a third day of walkouts over pay, demanding a labour agreement and "better working conditions" as Christmas orders peak
  • Date: 18th December 2013
  • Summary: RED PLACARD READING IN GERMAN "WHERE DID JEFF (BEZOS, AMAZON'S FOUNDER) GET HIS 25,000,000,000 PRIVATE ASSETS FROM?" VARIOUS OF AMAZON WORKERS GATHERED OUTSIDE BAD HERSFELD CITY HALL (SOUNDBITE) (German) "VERDI" UNION REPRESENTATIVE, MECHTILD MIDDEK, SAYING: "Amazon is the largest employer in the region and a lot of people want them to pay decent salaries." AMAZON WORKER
  • Embargoed: 2nd January 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA269OWZXVFCZ661NVT60L28DEZ
  • Story Text: German employees working for Amazon said on Wednesday (December 18) they would continue to strike for higher pay and better working conditions until representatives from the world's largest online mail order company "sit down at the negotiating table with us."
    Amazon.com employees at the Bad Hersfeld logistics centre entered into a third day of strike actions, with a union spokeswoman saying "the atmosphere among the workers on strike is so good that today, we decided to continue to strike until the end of the week - and then, it's not much longer until Christmas."
    Mechtild Middek said "the ball is in Amazon's court: they could signal that they want to take up wage negotiations and then we would obviously end the strike. But as long as Amazon is not willing to sit down at the negotiating table with us, there will be further strikes."
    One of the Amazon employees demonstrating in the town centre of Bad Hersfeld was middle-aged Frank Wisker.

    "I am out here against the permanent observation. Money to me is secondary," the bearded worker said.

    "What's important to me are the working conditions. I have been with Amazon eight and a half years and that job wears you out."
    Germany is Amazon's second-biggest market behind the United States and sales there grew almost 21 percent in 2012 to $8.7 billion, a third of its overseas total. Amazon took its most daily orders in Germany last Dec. 16, when almost 4 million articles were bought, with shipments peaking on Dec. 17.
    Amazon, which employs 9,000 warehouse staff in Germany plus 14,000 seasonal workers at nine distribution centres, on Monday (December 16) said 1,115 staff had joined the strike at three sites, but there had been no delays to deliveries.
    In an email to its clients, Amazon said on Wednesday (December 18) that deliveries ordered by December 20 at 11:59 p.m. German time (2259 GMT) were guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas despite the strike actions.
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