In response to allegations of “dirty tricks” by the online retail behemoth, the GMB union withdrew its request for membership at Amazon’s Coventry facility. The union asserted that it had more members than the site required for recognition but that Amazon had hired 1,000 more employees to thwart the effort.
Amazon refuted the claim, claiming it constantly hires new employees. When it happened, warehouse workers had just declared three additional days of strike action.
A long-running pay disagreement will result in staff walking out from June 12 through June 14.
The GMB has fought for ten years to have the authority to represent Amazon employees in Coventry. If the proposal is accepted, Amazon would be compelled to bargain with workers over wages, vacation time, and sick leave.
At the Coventry location, according to the union’s estimation, there were 1,300 employees, 800 of whom were GMB members.
Amazon was contacted by the union about this, but the company did not react within ten days. As a result, the GMB submitted its case to the “Central Arbitration Committee,” a government organisation in charge of regulating compliance with “UK labour legislation.”
However, the union claims that Amazon has been hiring new employees to fill out its warehouse, and as a result, the company was able to convince the committee that the location had more than 2,000 workers.
Darren Westwood, a member of the GMB, claimed that “300 to 400” more workers concluding their shifts on Saturday “were simply pulling and pushing” to descend some stairs because “you need to get out of there as quickly as possible.”
Amazon claimed that it frequently recruited fresh staff members “across the nation and throughout the year, to meet consumer demand,” and disputed that it had crammed the warehouse with new hires as a tactic to oppose unionisation.
During the months of January, February, March, and April, workers at the site conducted their first strike at Amazon’s facilities in Britain.
