Today is one of the biggest days for a certain online retailer, but a wave of Amazon Prime Day strikes are seeing thousands of workers walking out in multiple countries. Workers in the Minneapolis, Minnesota fulfillment center and across Germany are walking off of the job in protest of the company’s wages and working conditions.
Meg Brady, 55—a worker in the Minneapolis fulfillment center—currently makes $17.15/hour but says that she only feels fairly compensated when she is making her overtime rate of $25.00/hour. She is being joined by dozens of other people at her facility in one of the largest Amazon Prime Day strikes to take place in the United States yet. Amazon, for its part, has promised that workers are free to use their paid time off however they like (as most of the workers in this strike are doing) and that there is a “zero-tolerance” policy for any sort of retaliation towards the workers.
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The United States, of course, is not the only place that is currently engaging in strikes. Germany is stepping up too, and in a big way: A spokesman says that more than 2,000 German workers have walked off the job, representing just over 10% of the country’s entire workforce for that company. German workers are protesting under the slogan “No more discount on our incomes.” They are also being joined by fellow workers in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Poland this year.
Amazon has stated that the Amazon Prime Day strikes will have “zero operational impact” on one of the busiest business days of the year for the online retail giant.
“Amazon proves every day that you can be a fair and responsible employer without a collective agreement,” the Amazon spokesperson said according to CNN. “In our fulfillment centers, our wages are at the upper end of what is paid in comparable jobs.”
