German Amazon employees go on strike

More pay and benefits

The
employees of Amazon in Germany are very dissatisfied: they demand a minimum wage of 10.66 euro per
hour, a better schedule, a bonus for night shifts and a Christmas bonus. It
was the first time German Amazon employees took this kind of action, said
ver.di spokesman Heiner Reimann.

It was ver.di that instigated the strike, after
several attempts to come to an agreement with the American retailer failed. Ver.di
also visited employees at Amazon Leipzig and found comparable circumstances: over
ninety percent of employees want to go out in the streets to protest. Whether the
strike will really happen, is not certain yet. It is however sure that
deliveries will suffer some delays.

Long history of intimidation

It is not the first time this year Amazon is embarrassed
in Germany: earlier this year German public TV-station aired a report which
showed that warehouse employees were intimidated by neo-Nazi security company
HESS.

After the report Amazon fired the militaristic
guards immediately, but the damage had been done. The reputation of Amazon as
an employer has been – mildly put – damaged and even the right-wing German government demanded an
investigation.