Report
Amazon workers in Europe are closer to a continent-wide union
The multinational has been accused of creating an abusive work environment for European employees. In April, a network of unions representing Amazon employees reached an agreement. A first strike could come this summer.
In late April, an agreement was reached among the main European trade unions for the establishment of a continent-wide union committee within the multinational Amazon. The notice was sent to the European headquarters of Jeff Bezos’ company in Luxembourg. Amazon has to respond within six months. If it doesn’t, the union committee will have been officially constituted, and it will be able to organize labor disputes and strikes, and work toward unifying the conditions of the multinational’s workers in all European countries where it operates.
In late April, CGIL hosted a Rome meeting organized by the UNI Global Union in collaboration with the Ebert Foundation, where the European trade unions agreed on the terms of this agreement and made a preliminary assessment of the results of the struggles that have occurred lately at Amazon.
As for future demonstrations, these could take place on “Amazon Prime Day“ or during “Black Friday”—namely on July 10-11 or on Nov. 23. For now, these are only proposals. From the analysis of the trade unions, it emerged that the workers are in a highly critical condition. In Italy, a first strike was organized in November 2017, which led to advances in discussions.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/verso-unalleanza-dei-sindacati-europei-in-amazon/ on 2018-05-06