"It is one of the days that Amazon has most sales, and these are days when we can hurt more and make ourselves be heard because the company has not listened to us and does not want to reach any agreement," said Hernandez, who has worked for five years at Amazon.</s>A picket wears stickers related to the strike outside the entrance of an Amazon fulfillment centre in San Fernando de Henares near Madrid, Spain, November 23, 2018. REUTERS/Susana Vera

BERLIN/MADRID (Reuters) - Workers at Amazon logistic centers in Germany and Spain staged strikes on Friday, walking off the job on Black Friday, the discount spending spree that kicks-off the start of the crucial Christmas shopping season.

Amazon Germany said around 620 workers were participating in the strikes at its Bad Hersfeld and Rheinberg facilities but the majority of employees were continuing to work and there was no impact on customer orders.

Germany’s Verdi services union had called for Amazon workers to strike for 24 hours until midnight on Friday, demanding better pay and labor contracts that guarantee healthy working conditions.

“We are entering the end of year spurt, the most stressful time for employees,” said Verdi representative Mechthild Middeke. “Especially on a day like Black Friday, employees should be the central focus.”

Amazon Germany said its jobs offered competitive pay and comprehensive benefits from the first day of employment.

Staff in Germany earn a starting salary of 10.78 euros ($12.23) per hour and earn on average a monthly wage of 2,397 euros after two years.

Workers at Amazon’s biggest warehouse in Spain, San Fernando de Henares, walked off the job on Friday and will also strike on Saturday. Unions said between 85 and 90 percent of staff were taking part in the industrial action.

Amazon Spain said the figures did not reflect reality and a majority of employees were processing orders.

Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, was so named because spending in the United States would surge and retailers would traditionally begin to turn a profit for the year - moving from the red ink into the black.</s>On the day that kicks-off the Christmas shopping season, Amazon workers in parts of Europe have gone on strike.

Workers walked off the job at logistic centers in Germany and Spain on Friday, according to Reuters.

Amazon Germany said around 620 workers were participating in the strikes at its Bad Hersfeld and Rheinberg facilities, but the majority of employees were continuing to work and there was no impact on customer orders.

Germany's Verdi services union had called for Amazon workers to strike for 24 hours until midnight on Friday, demanding better pay and labor contracts that guarantee healthy working conditions.

Amazon Germany said its jobs offered competitive pay and comprehensive benefits from the first day of employment.

Staff in Germany earn a starting salary of $12.23 per hour.

Workers at Amazon's biggest warehouse in Spain, San Fernando de Henares, walked off the job on Friday and will also strike on Saturday.

Unions said between 85 and 90 percent of staff were taking part in the industrial action.

Amazon Spain said the figures did not reflect reality and a majority of employees were processing orders.

Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, was so named because spending in the United States would surge and retailers would traditionally begin to turn a profit for the year - moving from the red ink into the black.</s>Not everyone is excited about the Black Friday madness. About 620 Amazon workers in Germany, and a number more in Spain and the U.K., staged walkouts and strikes on November 23 to demand better pay and working conditions, Yahoo! Finance reports.

At its centers in Bad Hersfeld and Rheinberg in Germany, 620 workers walked out for 24 hours after Germany’s Verdi services union called for a strike.

Workers at Spain’s biggest warehouse, located in San Fernando de Henares, also walked out on Friday and plan to strike Saturday.

“We are entering the end of year spurt, the most stressful time for employees,” said Mechthild Middeke, a spokesperson for Verdi. “Especially on a day like Black Friday, employees should be the central focus.”

Amazon Germany says that a majority of employees stayed on the job and that there would be no delay in customer service. It also defended its pay and worker conditions, saying that it offers competitive pay and benefits, with workers earning an equivalent of $12.23 per hour to start.

In Spain, 85 to 90 percent of the employees took part of the walkout according to the local unions, but Amazon Spain disputes the numbers, saying that a majority of employees were still at work processing customer orders.

A trade union in the United Kingdom also announced a protest against Amazon, saying that the company fosters “inhumane” conditions for warehouse workers. The GMB Union claims that workers are “breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances.”

Over the past several years, ambulances have been called to Amazon warehouses about 600 times, according to CNBC. At one warehouse with somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 workers, an ambulance was called 115 times. For comparison, a nearby Tesco with 1,300 workers needed an ambulance just eight times.

Amazon UK says that its network is “fully operational” and that “any reports to the contrary are simply wrong.”

The company also disputes that working conditions in its warehouses are dangerous or that it is pay is low in the UK.

“According to the U.K. Government’s Health and Safety Executive, Amazon has over 40% fewer injuries on average than other transportation and warehousing companies in the U.K.,” the company said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to compare our pay, benefits and working conditions to others and come see for yourself on one of the public tours we offer every day at our centers across the UK uk.amazonfctours.com.”

GMB says that workers in Italy will also “take action” to protest conditions and pay for Black Friday. The union is encouraging other Amazon employees to share their experiences with the company using the hashtag #AmazonWeAreNotRobots.</s>Amazon workers in Spain, Germany and Britain went on strike on the day of the "Black Friday" sales bonanza asking for better work conditions, though the online giant played down the impact of the stoppage.

The employees, many of whom are following the hashtag #Amazonwearenotrobots, had already staged a similar work stoppage in July during another sales day for the retailer.

Amazon defended its workplace policies, saying it had created more than 25,000 jobs in the United Kingdom and describing itself as "an employer that is as reliable as it is good" in Germany.

In Spain, Amazon's San Fernando de Henares facility near Madrid, the country's biggest which employs some 1,500 people, had come to "a complete standstill" according to the CCOO union.

Ana Berceruelo of the union told news agency AFP that "lorries are not entering, nor are they leaving" the centre, which prepares packages for clients in Spain and other European countries.

But in a statement, Amazon said "the majority of workers on the morning shift" were working and processing orders.

In Germany, the Verdi union said the strike affected two facilities in Bad Hersfeld in the centre and Rheinberg in the west.

Employees want a labour agreement that would better overtime pay, for instance.

There again, Amazon in Germany said that the "vast majority" of employees were working, which meant that orders weren't affected.

In Britain, meanwhile, the GMB union was planning protests in five facilities to denounce "inhuman conditions," citing for example employees who don't have time to go to the toilet or a pregnant woman forced to work standing up.

Amazon though said its work conditions are good and that it "has over 40 percent fewer injuries on average than other transportation and warehousing companies in the UK."

In Spain, the labour dispute started because Amazon changed employees' work conditions, meaning they now lose out on sick pay or breaks, said Berceruelo.

In its statement, though, Amazon said employees had "a competitive salary, complete package of benefits and innovative training programmes."

The strikes in Spain are due to take place on November 23 and 24, as well as December 7, 9, 15, and 30, and January 3 and 4 -- all "days of high workload for Amazon", according to Berceruelo.

Meanwhile in France, a group of activists dumped old electronic devices in front of Amazon's French headquarters to protest to what they said was the online retailer's lack of recycling measures, as well as overconsumption encouraged by Black Friday sales.</s>Workers at Amazon's biggest logistics centre in Spain went on strike on the day of the online retailer's "Black Friday" sales bonanza, a union and the company said.

Employees at Amazon's San Fernando de Henares facility near Madrid have been demanding better wages and work conditions for months and have already staged several strikes this year.

It was unclear exactly how many employees had stopped work.

Ana Berceruelo of the CCOO union told AFP the centre, which prepares packages for clients in Spain and other European countries, "is at a complete standstill.

"Lorries are not entering, nor are they leaving."

But in a statement, Amazon said "the majority of workers on the morning shift" were working and processing orders.

The centre, which opened in 2012, employs around 2,000 people on fixed and temporary contracts, according to Berceruelo.

The labour dispute started because Amazon changed employees' work conditions, meaning they now lose out on sick pay or breaks, she said.

In its statement, though, Amazon said employees had "a competitive salary, complete package of benefits and innovative training programmes."

The strikes are due to take place on November 23 and 24, as well as December 7, 9, 15, and 30, and January 3 and 4- all "days of high workload for Amazon", according to Berceruelo.</s>Some of Amazon’s workers in Europe are protesting against what they call unfair work conditions, in a move meant to disrupt operations on Black Friday.

Labor groups representing workers at Amazon Spain said about 90 percent of workers at a logistics depot near Madrid joined a walkout Friday. Only two people were at the loading bay, said Douglas Harper of the CCOO trade union confederation.

Amazon challenged the unions’ walkout figures, saying in a statement that most staff had turned up for work at the depot.

Unions in Britain said they would stage protests at five sites to complain about safety conditions. Amazon said the safety record at its warehouses is above the industry average.

In Germany, workers walked off the job at Amazon distribution centers in Rheinberg and Bad Hersfeld as part of a yearslong push for higher pay, the ver.di union said.

The union argues Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers, and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.</s>BERLIN (BLOOMBERG) - Amazon employees in Europe protested warehouse working conditions, some using the slogan "we are not robots," in another challenge for the world's biggest online retailer heading into its busiest time of year.

Workers in Germany, Spain, and France walked off the job at Amazon fulfillment centres on Black Friday (Nov 23), one of the busiest online shopping days of the year.

In Italy and Britain, workers protested at several facilities, according to Bloomberg Law.

More than 600 German workers at the company's Bad Hersfeld facility walked out on Friday morning local time.

In Spain, workers at Amazon's Madrid-area San Fernando de Henares facility planned a two-day strike Friday and Saturday.

That facility employs 1,800 workers and was last on strike during Amazon Prime Day, another major shopping day for the company in May, according to UNI Global Union.

About 500 workers in Britain demonstrated at five Amazon warehouses, according to the GMB union. Membership in the union among Amazon employees is small, national officer Mick Rix said.

Images on social media showed small groups of people gathered with banners from the union.

"What we're saying is Jeff Bezos, you're the richest man in the world, you have the wealth and ability to make sure your workers are treated with respect and dignity," Rix said.

"You as the wealthiest man in the world would prefer to spend your wealth on space travel rather than on the people who create your wealth."

Germany and Britain are among Amazon's biggest international markets, accounting for more than US$27 billion (S$37 billion) in sales in 2017.

Germans are expected to buy about €2.4 billion (S$4.2 billion) worth of goods on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, an increase of about 15 per cent over last year.

Amazon does not disclose sales totals for Spain.

Earlier this week, the company said it mistakenly shared customer data with undisclosed parties, a privacy misstep heading into the key holiday shopping period.

Amazon said on Friday that the demonstrations in Europe did not disrupt operations and disputed the level of protest participation claimed by some unions.

The company has invested €27 billion and created more than 75,000 permanent jobs in Europe since 2010, it said in an email.

"These are good jobs with highly competitive pay, full benefits, and innovative training programmes," the company said. "We provide safe and positive working conditions, and encourage anyone to come see for themselves by taking a tour at one of our fulfillment centres."

Amazon has become a symbol of wealth inequality and corporate welfare in the US since many of its warehouse workers receive government assistance for basic needs like food and health care, even though it is one of the world's most valuable companies run by chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man.

The company tried to address the criticism in October by announcing all US warehouse workers would be paid at least US$15 an hour, though the company also eliminated some employee stock awards and bonuses.

Amazon faces worker backlashes in Europe more frequently due to a greater involvement of unions.

None of Amazon's US warehouse workers is represented by unions.

Still, a group of Somali workers at Amazon's Shakopee, Minnesota, fulfillment centre plan to protest Dec 14 following issues over workplace conditions and religious accommodations.

Workers at Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, have recently begun talks of organising across multiple stores, but there has yet to be a vote, according to Bloomberg Law.</s>Just in time for the online retailer’s Black Friday bonanza, Amazon warehouse employees across Europe went on strike or are staging protests today. According to the UNI Global Union, workers are demanding better working conditions and wages and protesting Amazon’s refusal to negotiate with them. “We are not robots,” the strikers are proclaiming.

The affected fulfillment centers are in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. UNI tells me that more than 2,400 workers in Spain and Germany are on strike currently, with hundreds more in the other areas.

In the U.K., the British trade union GMB says five different warehouses are holding protests. The group says it expects hundreds of employees to take part.

“The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly inhuman,” said GMB secretary general Tim Roache in a statement. “They are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances.”

Workers in Spain, Italy, and Germany have all planned strikes.

“Amazon has not made worker safety a top priority,” said Fiorenzo Molinari, a secretary at a local Italian trade union, in a provided statement. “To us, it seems like the company only pretends to care. Our warnings about unsafe conditions often go ignored, and our concerns about our jobs get deflected.”

In a statement, Amazon pushed back at the union complaints.</s>London – Some of Amazon’s workers in Europe are protesting against what they call unfair work conditions, in a move meant to disrupt operations on Black Friday.

Labor groups representing workers at Amazon Spain said that around 90 percent of workers at a logistics depot near Madrid joined a walkout Friday. Only two people were at the loading bay, said Douglas Harper of the CCOO trade union confederation.

Amazon challenged the unions’ walkout figures, saying in a statement that most staff had turned up for work at the depot.

On a picket line, 38-year-old employee Eduardo Hernandez said the walkout is intended to hurt the company financially.

“It is one of the days that Amazon has most sales, and these are days when we can hurt more and make ourselves be heard because the company has not listened to us and does not want to reach any agreement,” said Hernandez, who has worked for five years at Amazon.

Unions in Britain said they would stage protests at five sites to complain about safety conditions. Amazon said the safety record at its warehouses is above the industry average.

In Germany, workers walked off the job at Amazon distribution centers in Rheinberg and Bad Hersfeld as part of a years-long push for higher pay, the ver.di union said.

The union argues Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

While Black Friday discounts have traditionally been a U.S. retail event, companies have increasingly been offering discounts in other countries too.
Workers at Amazon distribution centers in Germany and Spain protest labour conditions in a strike coinciding with the Black Friday shopping peak.