Amazon strike continues to ferment, employees: bathroom breaks are timed

Last Wednesday, workers at Amazon's Coventry warehouse in the UK officially began their strike action.

According to the British GMB trade union, about 300 workers participated in the strike. They gathered outside the warehouse and loudly protested against Amazon's hourly wage of 10.5 pounds, believing that the wage increase was "insulting."

The warehouse workers told local media they were treated "inhumanely" while working at Amazon , had few breaks at work and were under close surveillance by managers.

However, Amazon said that this is just a system to "assess employee performance."

An Amazon spokesperson said the system is designed to "help employees improve" when they don't meet performance standards, but two Amazon employees said they believe robots in the warehouse are treated better than they are.

They added: " Even going to the toilet during work hours can be questioned by supervisors . As long as you are not working, they will come to check what happened. Sometimes even if you are away for just a few minutes, it will be recorded in the system. "

Another employee complained that he suffered from diabetes, but it was not easy to go to the toilet in the huge warehouse. Sometimes the round trip took more than 15 minutes. At this time, the manager would come over and ask him what he was doing.

In response to this issue, Amazon explained that employees can suspend performance statistics tools at any time if they need to go out, and denied the situation pointed out by the employees.

In August last year , Amazon offered its UK employees a 5% pay rise, but due to the highest inflation level in 40 years, this increase is obviously a drop in the bucket, and the budget pressure of many working-class people has reached its limit.

An Amazon spokesman said the company was "proud" of its "competitive" pay, saying warehouse workers start at £11.45 an hour in London and the southeast of England and £10.50 elsewhere.

He said this would mean an increase of 29% in the minimum hourly pay for Amazon workers since 2018. But union members want a minimum pay of £15 an hour.

The two sides have been deadlocked over this issue and have never been able to reach a consensus.

In fact, Amazon has been in constant friction with unions in the United States. More than half of the 8,000 workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, voted to join the Amazon Union, which has now been officially certified. However, Amazon said it would appeal the certification.

Amid internal and external troubles, Amazon's first move in the new year remains the focus of outside attention.

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