Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) warehouse workers in the UK have gone on strike for the first time ever, with employees at the tech giant's Coventry warehouse hitting the picket line on Wednesday.
An estimated 300 workers from the fulfilment centre walked out at 4am until to 8am and will strike again between 4pm and 8pm, with a rally staged by the GMB union at the Lyons Park picket during the latter.
Workers and representatives from the GMB trade union called the strike after the US company’s offer of a 50p per hour pay increase last summer.
The first group of UK #Amazon workers to take strike action have walked out of BHX4 Coventry@GMB_union members’ fight for decent pay is making history#AmazonStrike pic.twitter.com/XGeJF5rZuK
— Stuart Richards (@GMBStuart) January 25, 2023
Union members voted 98% in favour of industrial action, according to GMB, which has been asking for £15 an hour for employees, almost a 50% increase on the current £10.50 hourly wage.
Amazon, which recorded a pre-tax profit of £204mln in 2021 and offered all staff a one-off payment of £500 in December, claims the strikers represent a small portion of the Coventry warehouse workforce and that the walkout will have no effect on operations.
The company is yet to enter talks with the union.
Stuart Richards, GMB senior organiser, said the workers in Coventry were making history.
“They’ve defied the odds to become the first ever Amazon workers in the UK to go on strike. They’re taking on one of the world’s biggest companies to fight for a decent standard of living. They should be rightly proud of themselves.
“After six months of ignoring all requests to listen to workers’ concerns, GMB urges Amazon UK bosses to do the right thing and give workers a proper pay rise.”
Union members said robots in the warehouses were “treated better than us".
Darren Westwood and Garfield Hilton told the BBC their work around the warehouse was tracked and monitored, adding that workers were told off for any “idle time" of a few minutes.
Antoine Argouges, chief executive of shareholder activist group Tulipshare, which has also been campaigning to encourage Amazon to do more on workers’ rights, said the UK strike “sends a message loud and clear to Amazon and its shareholders that enough is enough".
“Amazon must urgently investigate its working conditions, to protect the safety of its workers and fix its reputation as an employer who disregards workers’ rights. We have already seen from the fallout from the mass layoffs at Twitter last year that when companies treat employees badly, its share price falls."
Last year, Tulipshare's AGM proposal on workers’ rights received support from 44% of Amazon investors.
Argouges said the proposal will be made to the company again this year.