Amazon Workers in Germany Strike

Nearly a thousand Amazon employees participated in strikes at two of the company’s German sites. The union said about 600 workers at Amazon's Bad Hersfeld site and another 400 at its Leipzig facility took part in the strikes.

The union threatened further action as the year's busiest shopping season begins. "It lies completely in Amazon's hands whether more strikes will take place in the upcoming Christmas season," said union representative Mechthild Middeke. The workers were striking because of wages and benefits. Amazon employs about 9,000 people at its nine German logistics centers, with Bad Hersfeld the largest site with more than 3,000 employees. Amazon has been a target of repeated strikes in Germany, its second-largest market after the US. The union wants the company to adopt industrywide wage agreements for employees, rather than using its own pay scale. "The moment Amazon agrees to talks we'll be sitting at the table instead of standing in the door," said Middeke. "Employees need an appropriate and reliable wage determined by collective agreement rather than by the employer alone." Among the benefits a collective wage agreement would bring is a Christmas bonus or "13th-month salary," a traditional component of wage agreements in Germany.