About 25 workers and supporters from Poland, Germany, France and the USA met for the seventh cross-border meeting since 2015 (the first meeting in 2015 also took place in Bad Hersfeld).
The meeting began with reports from the different warehouses. For instance:
- Wages in Poland were raised again: the hourly wage before tax has increased from 13.00 zlotys to 18.50 zlotys since 2014.
- A protest of forklift drivers against disciplinary measures took place in Poznan.
- The state labor inspection put pressure on Amazon due to several infractions of the law.
- Amazon workers are trying to organize in several warehouses in the USA.
- In Bad Hersfeld more workers took part in the last strikes, the union Verdi had a good result during the works council elections, organizing attempts were intensified.
- For the first time, hiccup strikes were used in Bad Hersfeld.
In the further course of the meeting we separated in work groups and discussed the experiences with different forms of labor struggle and the workers’ demands in different countries.
At the end of the meeting we collectively decided to take the following steps:
- We start a campaign against the usage of targets to speed up work.
- As the information situation is still unsatisfactory, we form groups which will collect data on wages, working conditions, and employment forms in Amazon warehouses. The results shall be presented during the next cross-border meeting in March.
- There will be more Safe Package actions (‘work to rule’).
- Besides organizing activities in the workplaces we will focus on putting pressure on Amazon’s Luxembourg headquarters. The details will be discussed.
- The next meeting will take place in Poland in mid-March 2019. The city and other details will be announced later this year.
For more information, the next invitation, news, contact, etc. see our blog https://amworkers.wordpress.com.
amazing workers 