German Amazon workers strike over pay

Amazon has a long history of not treating its employees very well, whether it's not providing adequate air conditioning in some of its facilities – leading some workers to pass out on the job – or leaving warehouse employees working alone in huge empty buildings. But one constant theme seems to pervade most of Amazon's business and that's cost cutting, which applies as much to undercutting the competition on price as it does to worker wages, which is why so many of them have begun striking in Germany, with the threat of picket lines at the Seattle HQ.

According to union workers, Amazon pays it staff less than other retail firms and therefore they feel the workers are due a pay rise. Strikes to demand this raise have taken place at Leipzig, Bad Hersfeld and Graben, with threats of further picketing by American Amazon colleagues outside of the company's headquarters.

Amazon's only response so far has been to suggest that its staff are paid at the upper end of the scale for the positions they hold in the industry.

KitGuru Says: I'd be pretty surprised if Amazon caved to this. Its low worker pay is part of the reason it can afford to offer products at such low prices. Plus the timing for this isn't good. the retailer is already gunning for more automation, increased worker wages would just make it speed up the replacement of people with robotics. [Cheers Guardian]

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