It is a perennial favorite among the tariff conflicts in Germany: Verdi against Amazon. The labor dispute began seven years ago. At last there was calm due to corona. Now the union wants to put more pressure on the mail order company again.
Bad Hersfeld (dpa) - The Verdi union wants to boost the wage conflict with the online retailer Amazon after a corona-related forced break.
"We will stay on the ball and will now launch the next activities," said Verdi Federal Section Leader responsible for retail and mail order, Orhan Akman, the German Press Agency. "We will not rest until we have a collective agreement." This Thursday marks the seventh time that there is a permanent wage conflict. On May 14, 2013, the union organized the first regular strike at Germany's largest location in Bad Hersfeld in the East of Hessen and in Leipzig.
Akman said in Berlin about the ongoing dispute with the world's largest mail order company: "It is one of the longest labor disputes in the history of trade unions in Germany and also one of the hardest. We are fighting against a giant that has enormous economic opportunities. We need staying power for that. Unfortunately Amazon believes it can do anything with money. "
Akman said: "We can be proud of what we have achieved in recent years." There is now a works council at almost all locations. "We brought democracy into the company. It used to end at the front doors." Amazon had been forced to invest in image campaigns for a long time in order to polish up its reputation, which had been badly damaged years ago.
Verdi wants to go on strike again to put pressure on the industry leader. Recently, such actions were not compatible with the protection rules against the corona virus. With the loosening there is scope again. "Normally we would have started campaigns again since March. Corona restricted us. But we planned all through 2020 and are well positioned." Verdi wants to continue working on its international network and cooperate with foreign unions.
Amazon is calm. A spokesman summed up: "We see that the strike calls have less and less impact on our work. We also can not see that there has been more strike recently." Upon request, neither Amazon nor Verdi could or did not provide an overview of the development of strikes in recent years. Amazon pointed out that there had been no strikes at the newly opened locations in recent years. The spokesman sees this as evidence of the job satisfaction of the employees.
The Amazon spokesman emphasized: "Amazon proves every day that we are a fair and responsible employer even without a collective agreement. Amazon is already offering what the union is supposed to achieve: fair payment, attractive additional benefits and safety at work." The wages in the logistics centers should not shy away from comparison with corresponding jobs. Amazon has had more than 8,000 employees for more than five years. "We work constructively with the works councils at the locations. They are elected by all employees and represent them as a whole. That is the difference to the union." Nationwide, Amazon has 13 logistics locations with around 13,000 permanent employees.
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