Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was named the richest man in the world this week by Forbes magazine. His fortune is $ 177 billion, $ 64 billion more than last year. At the same time, however, the company is once again facing criticism for the indecent conditions of its employees. Despite the opposition of the leadership, they are fighting for the establishment of unions in the USA, and they are organizing strikes in European cities. In the Czech Amazon division, on the other hand, there is a suspicious calm.
In the coronavirus pandemic, not only the founder of Amazon, Bezos, is thriving, but also the company itself. Due to the closed stone shops, people shop far more online, which is great news for the internet giant.
He announced in February that he had increased sales by 44 percent year-on-year to $ 125.6 billion in the fourth quarter, or about 2.7 trillion crowns. Amazon’s quarterly net profit more than doubled to $ 7.2 billion (about 156 billion crowns), earning a record $ 21.3 billion for the past year.
On the other hand, a company is often the target of criticism for the conditions in which its employees work. Due to the increase in the volume of e-commerce, trade unions in Italy have already negotiated this year in Italy, where it has about 8,500 employees. “We are not now asking for wage increases, but for more humane working conditions,” FIT-CISL Secretary General Salvatore Pellecchia said in March.
Strikes in Germany and Italy
The unions asked the company to reconsider some aspects of employment contracts, including workload, shifts, meal vouchers and bonuses. They also sought to reduce drivers’ working hours. However, negotiations broke down and employees declared a strike.
According to trade unions, Amazon is “chronically unavailable for confrontation with employee representatives” in violation of legal rules. However, the company called the unions’ claims untrue and pointed out that it had met with trade unions twice in January.
Just a few days after the Italians expressed their dissatisfaction also Germans, who have been dissatisfied with working and wage conditions for a long time. In Germany, Amazon operates 15 logistics centers and employs 28,000 people. German Amazon workers do not spare strikes and usually announce them especially at times when the company expects record sales.
The American struggle for unions
But Amazon doesn’t like the unions or the activism of its people. Most recently, 6,000 warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, were convinced that they would join the unions. It was a groundbreaking vote because no Amazon employees in the United States have been unionized in their 27-year history.
“Amazon is acting very hard against employees who are trying to form unions and has a reputation in this regard as one of the sharpest employers in the USA,” Matěj Schneider, a publicist from the A2larm opinion website, describes for the on-line daily Aktuálně.cz.
“There are a plethora of cases. One of the most publicized was the dismissal of Chris Smalls, a New York warehouseman who complained about inadequate coronavirus measures to protect employees. A year now, Amazon is suing New York Attorney General Letitia James. within the subsidiary Whole Foods, Amazon should closely monitor the trade union activity on an interactive map, which, according to several criteria, determined how much the store is ‘endangered’ by trade union activity, “he describes.
According to Schneider, in an effort to prevent trade union activity, the company turned to the Pinkerton security agency, whose name has been inextricably linked to anti-union violence in the United States in the past. According to him, the approval of the Amazon unions in the USA would be a breakthrough for several reasons.
“On the one hand, no unions have been formed in any Amazon warehouse in the United States, and on the other hand, unions have historically never been very successful in the southern United States,” Schneider explains, saying trade union victory could mean many others have a chance to succeed.
However, the counting of votes showed that the trade union movement ultimately failed with its proposal. While 1798 employees voted against, 738 voted in favor.
Many politicians also supported the formation of trade unions in the USA. “Paying employees $ 15 an hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ by preventing unions from forming and forcing workers to urinate in bottles,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Congressman Mark Pocan wrote on Twitter.
Amazon initially objected to the allegation of urination, but then admitted its veracity. He said that in the first reaction he did not take into account the driver, but he meant distribution centers where there are enough toilets. The online retailer explained the emergency solution to traffic jams and that it was not always easy for drivers to find toilets during a covidu-19 pandemic.
US President Joe Biden also supported the trade unionist. He recently warned companies against intimidating their employees who want to work in unions. “The choice of joining a union should be up to the employees – period,” he said.
Following the failure of US unions, according to analyst Schneider, the crucial question is whether the Democratic Party’s representatives in the US Congress will approve forthcoming legislation that would greatly simplify union formation in the future. “Some Democrats may see the loss of the Bessemer unions as a clear impetus that a new law is needed,” Schneider added.
I prefer direct dialogue, says the Czech leadership
In the Czech Republic, Amazon operates a distribution center in Dobrovíz near Prague. Around 3,000 people work for the company here. The unions were formed here about five years ago. Even in this case, however, there were reports in the media that their establishment was not going smoothly and the leadership was opposed.
The online daily Aktuálně.cz addressed the management of the Czech division with a question as to whether they opposed the establishment of trade unions, which is evasive.
“We respect the individual rights of our employees and continue to have a direct dialogue with our employees, whether or not they are union members. We firmly believe that direct dialogue is the most effective way to understand the needs of our employees. We always encourage employees to deal with they asked questions and comments or concerns directly to their manager or management, “says Miroslava Jozová, PR manager for Amazon for the Czech Republic.
In recent years, trade unions and the Czech management have negotiated mainly to increase salaries, but they are also active in matters of working conditions for employees. “We regularly cooperate and communicate with the unions. There has never been a strike or a strike standby with us,” Jozová continues.
Even the Czech warehouse does not avoid criticism from some employees about working conditions. One of the former employees of the distribution center in Dobrovíz, whose identity the editorial staff knows but wished to remain anonymous, briefly described the operation of the warehouse for the online daily Aktuálně.cz. “I was annoyed by alternating night and day after a month. It limited me a lot. And also short breaks, because the building is big and took a long time to get anywhere. But I was happy with the buses and everyone knew what to do, so it was very organized , “he says.
Mr. Jan, another employee who also wished to remain anonymous, also described his experience with Amazon for Aktuálně.cz. “Working in Amazon for 165 crowns an hour sounds great, but when you get a questionnaire with a time limit of five seconds to answer, you are a little shocked,” he mentions the existence of a questionnaire, which he said would make employees report “disobedience” to colleagues. “Most questions are asked about forming unions, reporting any theft, breaking the rules or complaining about the system,” Jan said.
We have blackboards for comments
According to Amazon’s PR manager, Czech employees do not ask about what is happening in the USA. If they want to make any comments to the management, they have the opportunity, adds Jozová.
“One of them is a special board – The employee’s voice, where employees can write us their problem or idea. We work on this board daily and the relevant department has 24 hours to provide feedback to the employee,” adds the PR manager.
But unions cannot fully replace a similar system. They have a statutory role and rights. “It can conclude a so-called collective agreement with the employer, which then determines specific conditions for all employees. It has the right to information and discuss specific matters, such as discussing the dismissal of a particular employee,” describes the powers of the trade union cz.
“A trade union can also represent individual employees, although other associations could probably do so on the basis of a power of attorney. Trade unions also have the right to exercise control over the state of safety and health at work or the right to create conditions for proper performance at the expense of the employer. Trade union officials are then also protected from dismissal, “adds Preuss for the online daily Aktuálně.cz.
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