Amazon workers across Europe go on strike

Thousands of Amazon workers in a number of European countries have gone on strike today to demand better working conditions.

Workers in Germany will join colleagues from Spain, Italy, Poland, France and Britain in demanding labour contracts that guarantee healthy working conditions at so-called “fulfilment centres” run by the world’s largest e-commerce company.

The mass walkout is planned to coincide with a major sales promotion, known as Amazon Prime Day, which runs until midnight and is one of the retail giant's busiest sales days of the year.

A group called Amazon En Lucha organised the walk out at the company's fulfilment centre just outside the Spanish capital of Madrid yesterday, with those on strike picketing the warehouse wearing masks of chief executive Jeff Bezos, CNBC reports.

The company's warehouse conditions have come under intense scrutiny in the past few years. An investigation by the Sunday Mirror last year outlined how workers had timed toilet breaks and strict targets, with many falling asleep on the warehouse floor.

A Freedom of Information request also revealed that ambulances have been called out 600 times to Amazon’s UK warehouses in the past three years.

Workers at Amazon centres have repeatedly protested against the company’s long hours, tough working conditions, and high-pressure “rush” periods, such as around Prime Day and Black Friday.

Stefanie Nutzenberger, Verdi services union's top official responsible for the retail sector, said “The message is clear - while the online giant gets rich, it is saving money on the health of its workers”.

Forbes reports that a growing number of online workers, gamers, and shoppers plan to boycott Amazon over its treatment of low-level workers and to get the company’s attention on these issues, “organisers hope their boycott will make a dent in Amazon's bottom line”.

However, with sales in Germany, Amazon’s second largest national market after the United States, rising by 20% last year alone to $17 billion, the boycott will just be a drop in the ocean to the world’s biggest retailer.