Amazon UK Warehouse Workers to Strike on Black Friday
More than 1,000 Amazon workers at a U.K. warehouse are planning a four-day strike affecting Black Friday next month to agitate for better pay.
Workers organized under the GMB trade union will strike at a site in Coventry, England, on Nov. 7-9, as well as on Nov. 24, in what has been a year of ongoing industrial action across multiple fulfillment centers. According to Rachel Fagan, organizer at GMB, the strike dates will bring total days lost to labor action to nearly 30.
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This would mark the second year in a row that employees at the Amazon fulfillment center went on strike during Black Friday, although the previous year’s walkout came without a formal strike ballot.
The e-commerce giant said Monday that it would increase base pay for its frontline operations workers, who pick, pack, store and ship items in its warehouses, to between 11.80 pounds ($14.43) and 12.50 pounds ($15.29) per hour, depending on the location.
The pay increase extends to part-time, temporary and seasonal roles, as well as full-time positions, effective Oct. 15.
By April 2024, Amazon said the company will be increasing pay to between 12.30 pounds ($15.04) and 13 pounds ($15.90) per hour, depending on their location. Overall, this would result in an increase of at least 1 pound ($1.22) per hour for frontline U.K. operations employees.
But the GMB feels the raises aren’t good enough. It wants Amazon to raise starting pay to at least 15 pounds ($18.35) an hour.
“This is an unprecedented and historic moment with low paid workers taking on one of the world’s most powerful corporations. This is our members’ response to the failure of Amazon bosses to listen,” Fagan said in a statement. “Coventry is the beating heart of Amazon’s distribution network; strike action here on Black Friday will ripple throughout the company’s U.K. logistics. As Black Friday looms, Amazon must urgently reconsider their priorities or risk strike action causing widespread disruption to customers and the public.”
Amazon, which concluded its fall Prime Big Deal Days event Wednesday, is investing 170 million pounds ($208.2 million) into the salary increases, and hiring 15,000 seasonal employees ahead of the holiday season.
The company said that the investments will have boosted minimum starting pay in its U.K. operations by 20 percent in two years, or 50 percent since 2018.
“We have some of the most talented colleagues around, and we’re proud to offer them competitive wages and benefits, as well as fantastic opportunities for career development, all in a safe and modern work environment,” said John Boumphrey, U.K. country manager at Amazon.
On Monday, when Amazon announced the wage news, Fagan expressed her displeasure with the raise the e-commerce giant had proposed.
“This news will bring little comfort to the thousands of Amazon workers facing poverty pay, unsafe working conditions and workplace surveillance,” Fagan said. “Amazon has spent millions fighting their own workers over union rights and fair pay. GMB members have forced a pay rise from one of the world’s most powerful corporations, but Amazon can and must do better.”
Coventry has been the epicenter of Amazon labor activity in the U.K., with workers organizing a series of strikes at the warehouse in 2023, including during Prime Day. Strikes have also disrupted another fulfillment center in Rugeley, England.
Employees want formal union recognition, which would mean they could collectively bargain with Amazon over wages.
However, workers pushing for union recognition in June were dealt a blow when an independent arbitration committee sided with Amazon in determining that the workers lacked the required support to achieve union status.
The unionization push follows similar calls in the U.S., where workers in a Staten Island, N.Y. warehouse became the first group to vote in favor of unionizing at an Amazon facility. But other unionization efforts at a second Staten Island warehouse, a facility near Albany, N.Y. and another location in Bessemer, Ala. have failed.
The Staten Island employees are still without a contract after Amazon challenged the results, with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) upholding the vote. Amazon has since refused to negotiate with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). In July, the NLRB said it found merit to the charges that Amazon violated labor laws by refusing to bargain with the ALU.
