Labor action on both sides of the Atlantic
CNBC — DEC 16 2022
Amazon workers will go on formal strike for the first time in the UK
Ryan Browne
KEY POINTS
Employees at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse in central England voted Friday to go on strike.
It will be the first legally mandated strike to take place in the U.K.
The walkout will add to the wave of industrial action happening across the U.K.
Hundreds of Amazon workers will go on strike, Britain’s GMB union said Friday, marking a first for the company’s employees in the U.K.
Employees at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse in central England voted Friday to go on strike, with the walkout likely to happen in January 2023. Roughly 1,000 people work at the Coventry facility.
The workers are unhappy with a pay increase of 3%, or 50 pence per hour, Amazon introduced in the summer, which they say fails to match the rising cost of living. They want Amazon to pay a minimum of £15 an hour.
Inflation has soared due to increased energy costs and supply chain disruptions, with consumer prices currently at a 41-year high. The Bank of England hiked interest rates on Thursday in an effort to slow inflation.
Though Amazon workers in the U.K. have previously stopped working in August and on Black Friday in November in protest over the summer pay increase, these were spontaneous, unsanctioned withdrawals of labor.
This will be the first legally mandated strike to take place in the U.K.
“Amazon workers in Coventry have made history — they will be the first ever in the UK to take part in a formal strike,” Amanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, said in a statement Friday.
Amanda Gearing, senior organizer at GMB, said the Coventry workers “should be applauded for their grit and determination.”
“The fact that they are being forced to go on strike to win a decent rate of pay from one of the world’s most valuable companies should be a badge of shame for Amazon,” Gearing said in a statement.
“Amazon can afford to do better. It’s not too late to avoid strike action; get round the table with GMB to improve the pay and conditions of workers.”
Around 98% of the workers who turned out to vote opted to go on strike on a turnout of more than 63%.
In an emailed statement to CNBC, an Amazon spokesperson said: “We appreciate the great work our teams do throughout the year and we’re proud to offer competitive pay which starts at a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45 per hour, depending on location.”
“This represents a 29 per cent increase in the minimum hourly wage paid to Amazon employees since 2018. Employees are also offered comprehensive benefits that are worth thousands more — including private medical insurance, life assurance, subsidised meals and an employee discount, to name a few.”
“On top of this, we’re pleased to have announced that full-time, part-time and seasonal frontline employees will receive an additional one-time special payment of up to £500 as an extra thank you,” the spokesperson added.
Amazon has long been criticized for labor shortcomings, with the company often accused of poor working conditions in its warehouses and delivery operations. In April, staff at the company’s Staten Island warehouse in New York became the first group in the U.S. to vote in favor of joining a union.
The walkout will add to the wave of industrial action happening across the country. In recent weeks, upcoming strike actions have been announced by nurses, rail workers, postal workers, ambulance workers, airport staff, Border Force agents, highway workers, Eurostar staff, civil servants, bus drivers, firefighters, charity workers, meteorologists and offshore workers.
– CNBC’s Elliot Smith contributed to this report
AP News: Starbucks workers begin 3-day walkout at 100 US stores
Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three–day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain’s stores.
More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year–old unionization campaign.
The union says it expects the strike will shutter some stores entirely; at others, managers or other workers may keep the stores open.
Starbucks, which opposes the unionization effort, said Friday that the strike was having a limited impact on its stores and most remained open.
“We remain focused on working together and engaging meaningfully and directly with the union to make Starbucks a company that works for everyone, and we urge Workers United to uphold their promises to partners by moving the bargaining process forward,” the company said in a statement.
This is the second major strike in a month by Starbucks’ U.S. workers. On Nov. 17, workers at 110 Starbucks stores held a one–day walkout. That effort coincided with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink.
More than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company–run U.S. stores have voted to unionize since late last year.
At a Starbucks in Chicago, barista Finn Dorris and shift supervisor Teddy Hoffman were picketing in the snow on Friday, waving to cars that were honking in support. Both said the company has been cutting their hours ahead of the holidays.
“We have had stores close and absorbed partners, which makes it harder to stretch the hours that we are allotted between brand new partners,” said Dorris, who prefers to work 20–25 hours per week but lately has been scheduled to work 10.
Hoffman wants the company to treat employees more respectfully.
“The more of us who stand together, the more we send a message to Starbucks, and also each other, and even people who don’t work at Starbucks, that there are folks who aren’t going to tolerate being abused by their employer,” Hoffman said.
Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July, said she will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend. Tambellini said she’s protesting understaffed stores, poor management and what she calls Starbucks’ “scorched earth method of union busting,” including closing stores that have unionized.
Workers United noted that Starbucks recently closed the first store to unionize in Seattle, the company’s hometown. Starbucks has said the store was closed for safety reasons.
Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks in about 50 stores but no agreements have been reached.
The process has been contentious. According to the National Labor Relations Board, Workers United has filed at least 446 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks since late last year, including that the company fired labor organizers and refused to bargain. The company, meanwhile, has filed 47 charges against the union, among them allegations that it defied bargaining rules when it recorded sessions and posted the recordings online.
So far, the labor disputes haven’t appeared to dent Starbucks’ sales. Starbucks said in November that its revenue rose 3% to a record $8.41 billion in the July–September period.
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AP Video Journalist Teresa Crawford contributed from Chicago.