Amazon Manager Shrugs Off Union Concerns, Claims Competitive Wages and Working Conditions

• Voting successful for the first time: union founded in New York
• Amazon sees itself as competitive when it comes to wages and working conditions
• Conflicts between Amazon and ver.di in Germany

The online mail order company Amazon has been criticized worldwide for years because of its working conditions. In Germany, too, the trade union ver.di had called for walkouts at several German locations during the Christmas season and demanded nationwide collective agreements. But so far, a hoped-for wave of union organization at Amazon has failed to materialize.

Competitiveness: Amazon is calm

In an interview with the television channel CNBC, a leading Amazon manager is now calm about potential unions by Amazon workers: “As long as we offer competitive wages and valuable benefits, we do not think that our employees will choose to be represented , but that’s her decision,” emphasized Stefano Perego. So far, high-profile efforts by Amazon workers in the US and UK have failed because the e-commerce giant’s wages and benefits can match those of its competitors, Perego said. It is a decision made by employees, but Amazon is aware of its competitiveness and is therefore not concerned.

Perego also tried to refute safety concerns in the interview, in which he pointed out that the rate of reportable injuries in Amazon warehouses had fallen by almost a quarter since 2019 and that Amazon was planning further investments of around 550 million US dollars in safety for 2023.

Criticism then rained down from the English trade union GMB, which Perego described as “unrealistic” according to CNBC. It is not about exaggerated demands for “priceless services”. In an email to CNBC, GMB union rep Amanda Gearing wrote: “Mr Perego clearly has no connection with his workforce if he thinks Amazon doesn’t need to negotiate with GMB. It’s one of the richest companies in the world but wages are up puny and uncompetitive”.

Union activities at German Amazon locations

There have recently been conflicts with the ver.di trade union at various German Amazon locations. Works council members, mainly in Lower Saxony, are said to have been dismissed because of their union activities or not received an extension of their contract. The accumulation of cases in Lower Saxony indicates a systematic hindrance to trade union commitment, Nonni Morisse from ver.di told the Tagesschau. “For us, these are no longer isolated cases. If we find such termination procedures at every location in Lower Saxony where we have organised, union-oriented works councils, then the system has failed,” says Morisse. Amazon has so far denied any link between union engagement and layoffs or expiration of contracts.

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