After news of a “pointless” pay increase spread, workers at three warehouses stopped work to demand higher wages as inflation and interest rates surge.
ripple through Amazon’s largest UK warehouse as soon as details of a bump in hourly pay flashed onto screens around the facility on Wednesday. Rumors at the Tilbury distribution center in southeast England had anticipated a raise of £1 per hour, for many workers an increase of 9 percent. Instead, the screens displayed a rise of just 35 pence , about 3 percent.nonprofit Foxglove Legal
Frustration at the pay increase drove a crowd of employees to stop work and protest in the warehouse’s cafeteria at around 4 pm on Wednesday. The union GMB, which represents some Amazon employees in the UK, estimated that between 700 and 1,000 people took part and said that protests in Tilbury continued on Thursday, when workers at warehouses in Coventry and Bristol also walked off the job.
There has not previously been a strike across multiple UK Amazon warehouses, said Steve Garelick, regional organizer at GMB. “This is the first time ever there's been cohesive action from the workers,” he said. Garelick said the action reflects Amazon’s insufficient response to workers’ concerns about the increased cost of living, driven by inflation and a rise in interest rates from the Bank of England.
Amazon has long tried to discourage its workers from joining unions, but more employees in its warehouses have done so since the arrival of the pandemic. In April, Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island voted to form thein the US. In May, strikes took place at seven distribution centers across Germany, Amazon’s largest market in Europe.
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