Employees of the online retailer Amazon stopped working at several locations at the start of the night shift from Sunday to Monday, according to the Verdi union.
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Strikes began in Bad Hersfeld and Koblenz, in Rheinberg and Werne and in Leipzig, the union said on Monday. At first, there was different information about the effect of the strikes.
Amazon explained: “What we are currently seeing is that the majority of the employees work normally. We currently see no effects on our processes, so that customer orders are processed as normal.”
According to Verdi, however, 2,000 employees took part in the strike during the night and early shift. More should follow in later shifts. The union said that they were very satisfied – especially because they could not strike at all locations. It can be seen that anger has accumulated among the employees.
Verdi calls for a collective agreement to be signed to ensure the health and safety of workers. In addition, Verdi has demanded recognition of regional area collective agreements for retailers and mail order companies in the wage conflict with the online retailer that has been going on for over seven years.
Amazon, on the other hand, emphasized that the employees already received “wages at the upper end of what is paid for comparable jobs” and had a “safe working environment”. “In Germany alone, we have ordered 470 million units of hand disinfectant, 21 million pairs of gloves, 19 million masks, face shields or other mouth and nose protection and 39 million packages of disinfectant wipes since February,” said a spokesman.
According to the company, there is, among other things, a mask requirement at all locations, and temperature controls and staggered shift and break times have been introduced and cleaning has been stepped up. Nationwide, Amazon has 13 logistics locations with around 13,000 permanent employees.
Amazon shares are temporarily trading on the Nasdaq on Monday at 2.01 percent lower at $ 2,638.32.
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BAD HERSFELD / LEIPZIG (dpa-AFX)
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