Amazon is preparing for its first UK workers’ strike.
Additionally, workers were demonstrating against other working conditions that GMB official Amanda Gearing called “horrendous.” Workers from the UK’s largest online retailer Amazon went on strike for the first time on Wednesday to protest a salary increase that they find intolerable in light of the current economic crisis.
A small number of employees at a warehouse in Coventry, central England, have quit over a salary raise that is only worth 5%, or less than half the current UK inflation rate.
Tens of thousands of UK workers, including nurses, teachers, and train workers, are currently on strike in an effort to achieve pay rises that keep up with the country’s sky-high inflation rate.
According to Stuart Richards of the GMB union, in Coventry, “the first ever Amazon workers in the UK to go on strike,” were “taking on one of the biggest firms in the world to fight for a reasonable standard of living.”
“GMB asks Amazon UK managers to do the right thing and offer workers a proper pay hike,” he continued. “After six months of disregarding all calls to listen to workers’ concerns.”
Additionally, workers were demonstrating against other working conditions that GMB official Amanda Gearing called “horrendous.”
She claimed that target-driven performance measures created by an algorithm were the biggest problem for employees.
She complained, “They’re just having to work, work, work; they’re not permitted to chat to people; it’s hard to take a bathroom break.”
“We are not robots,” read a placard carried by the striking employees. Someone else added, “We are worth more.”
In a statement in response, Amazon claimed that “a very small part of our workers are involved” in the strike action in the UK.
We’re delighted to offer competitive pay because we value the excellent job that our teams do throughout the year.
According to Amazon, the UK’s minimum hourly salary has increased by 29% since 2018.
This was made possible in part by rises to the government-set minimum wage in the UK.
The yearly inflation rate in Britain is 10.5%.
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