Hundreds of Amazon.com Inc. workers in Germany walked off the
job Thursday, continuing a string of strikes aimed at swaying the
e-commerce giant on wage levels.
Beginning with the early shift, workers at Amazon logistics
centers in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld staged an all-day strike, the
second at Amazon's German operations this year. Outside Amazon's
logistics center in Bad Hersfeld, a town north of Frankfurt,
strikers set up tents with cold drinks and a bratwurst grill. A
worker dressed as an Easter Rabbit passed out chocolate eggs. She
wore a sign around her neck that read "Respect and fair wages at
Amazon!"
Good weather helped bring union members out for the strike,
services union Verdi said, but employees taking Easter vacation
this week weighed on turnout. At day's end, Amazon estimated fewer
than 650 workers at both locations took part, and said deliveries
to customers weren't affected.
"Amazon continues to turn down any discussion of pay, which
shows a lack of respect for the good performance its employees
deliver every day," said Verdi negotiator Jörg Lauenroth-Mago.
The union has long been at loggerheads with Amazon over how the
online retailer classifies employees at its nine German logistics
centers. Verdi wants Amazon to recognize employees as retail rather
than logistics sector workers, and adopt collective wage agreements
for the retail and mail-order sector.
But Amazon says its workers can't be compared with those who
work behind cash registers, and that it offers wages at the upper
end of what is common in the logistics industry, as well as other
benefits.
After a three-month lull in strikes, in March Verdi said it was
ready to try new tactics. Instead of pre-announcing coordinated
strikes, the union said it would strike without warning at
individual locations. The union used the strategy at the end of
March with an all-day action limited to Leipzig.
"We want to be flexible," Verdi spokesman Thomas Schneider said
at the time. "One can strike all day or half a day, at one or more
locations."
But the strikes at Amazon, which began in spring 2013 and
escalated during the Christmas order season, have so far failed to
get Amazon to budge. The online retailer insists on dealing only
with its employee works councils rather than the union.
Amazon employs 9,000 logistics center workers in Germany
permanently, and thousands more are on temporary contracts.
Write to Sarah Sloat at sarah.sloat@wsj.com
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