‘Make Amazon Pay’ to Strike on Black Friday in 30+ Countries

Glenn Taylor
·5 min read

The “Make Amazon Pay” coalition is gearing up for its fourth year of global Black Friday strikes. The pro-labor group is organizing in more than 30 countries including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, India and Japan.

At the Oct. 27 Summit to Make Amazon Pay in Manchester, U.K., trade unions and political leaders first unveiled plans to protest Amazon during the shopping extravaganza, in response to the widespread criticism of the company’s corporate practices around workplace safety and wages.

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Co-convened by the UNI Global Union and activist group Progressive International, the Make Amazon Pay campaign brings together over 80 organizations and more than 400 politicians worldwide as Amazon employees prepare the massive walkout.

In the U.K., more than 1,000 Amazon workers will go on strike at the Coventry warehouse, marking the 28th day of labor action at the facility this year. The staff most recently walked off the job from Nov. 7-9.

“Amazon has lost nearly 30 days to strike action in the U.K. this year alone,” said Amanda Gearing, GMB’s senior organizer, said in a statement. “Despite that, Amazon bosses are desperate to claim it will be business as usual for Amazon and Amazon customers this Black Friday. The truth is that this Black Friday will see the largest day of industrial disruption in Amazon’s thirty-year history. Coventry is the beating heart of Amazon’s distribution network; strike action on Black Friday will ripple throughout the company’s U.K. logistics.”

The GMB union, which represents the Coventry employees, has criticized the e-commerce giant for its recent offer of 1 pound ($1.25) per hour pay increase by April 2024. While this would bring hourly pay to between 12.30 and 13 pounds ($15.41-$16.29) depending on location, the GMB wants a bigger hourly increase to 15 pounds ($18.79).

An Amazon rep said the company offers U.K. workers competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, opportunities for career growth, “all while working in a safe, modern, work environment.”

“We respect our employees’ rights to join, or not to join, a union,” the rep told Sourcing Journal.

The U.K. strike is also garnering the attention of the Occupy movement, which has long sought to address social and economic inequality. To support the campaign, Occupy London’s “Stop Shopping Choir” will hold a concert at 5 p.m. local time on Black Friday outside Amazon’s headquarters in the U.K. capital.

Other unions backing the global strikes include the Teamsters and the RWDSU in the U.S., Italian trade union Filcams CGIL and German labor organization Ver.di. Teamsters members who were former Amazon contract delivery workers have been picketing Amazon warehouses since May to protest what the union calls unfair labor practices for being unlawfully terminated by the company. They most recently took their labor action to a Chicago warehouse on Monday.

Unions continue to pressure Amazon on its business practices. The 2023 UNI Global Union survey indicated that 51 percent of employees report adverse health effects from working at the company. Fifty-seven percent cite deteriorating mental health due to Amazon’s intrusive monitoring, the survey said.

Amazon workers in Spain want to extend their strike beyond Black Friday.

On Monday, the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), one of Spain’s largest labor unions, called on 20,000 of its Amazon warehouse and delivery workers to stage an hour-long strike during each shift starting on Cyber Monday, Nov. 27.

Amazon staff are spread over three daily shifts in Spain.

“Despite the various proposals that have been presented to Amazon from the union sections of CCOO, there has been no real approach on the part of the company that gives a global solution to the set of workplace concerns,” the CCOO said in a statement, adding that Amazon “does not offer any reasonable way out.”

The union stated three major concerns: poor protection from occupational health hazards affecting workers, problems with human resources and salaries that fail to match of employee workload volumes.

The CCOO pointed to “countless” complaints about Amazon’s lack of recognition of work-related health issues.

“We have verified, together with the Labor Inspectorate, that the accident and incident management system implemented by Amazon is hiding possible flaws in security measures,” the union said. “The direct consequence is the non-application of the necessary prevention measures: if the problem is not recognized, it cannot be solved, it is that simple and that serious.”

The union accused Amazon of paying the minimum wages of the sector of each province, while requiring employees to “give the maximum.”

“Our teams across Spain already work in a modern and safe environment with competitive salaries and benefits,” an Amazon spokesperson told Sourcing Journal. “Entry-level employees earn at least 1,400 euros ($1,529) per month with opportunities to grow and build their careers. On top of that, employees and their families have comprehensive benefits that are worth thousands more a year—including private medical and life insurance, subsidized meals, extended paid paternity leave and an employee discount, to name a few.”