Hundreds of Amazon workers from across Germany protested on Friday against what the union representative said are unfair working conditions and the lack of a collective wage agreement at the company.
Protesters marched from two directions to a central meeting in a hall in Bad Hersfeld in the state of Hesse. Amazon has two logistics centers in the city.
They carried banners and signs with slogans such as ‘Even if [Amazon boss] Jeff Bezos doesn’t like it, we want the collective labor agreement.”
It is about “good and healthy work”, employees who have input and a legally safe collective agreement, Silke Zimmer of the service sector union Verdi told the meeting.
According to verdi and the global umbrella organization for the service sector, Uni Gobal, 60 different promotions were planned for Black Friday in more than 30 countries.
Delegations from the US, Great Britain, Sweden and Italy also took part in the rally in Bad Hersfeld.
Verdi said about 550 demonstrators took part in the central meeting in Bad Hersfeld. A spokeswoman said about 2,000 Amazon employees across Germany took part in protests.
For more than ten years, Verdi has been demanding in vain that the American company recognize the German collective bargaining agreements for the retail and mail order sectors and conclude a collective agreement.
Amazon operates 23 major logistics centers in Germany and says it offers its employees fair wages with additional benefits.
According to Verdi, Amazon employees report enormous pressure to perform, and an ever-increasing workload and surveillance in the workplace, which they say creates a climate of fear, especially in logistics centers.
Verdi called the strike and demonstration in Bad Hersfeld the central action of the international #MakeAmazonPayDay campaign.
