<
https://theconversation.com/i-spent-months-with-amazon-workers-in-coventry-before-they-narrowly-voted-against-unionising-this-is-what-i-learned-234962>
"Amazon workers in Coventry, England, have narrowly voted against a proposal
that would have forced the retail giant to grant the GMB Union formal
recognition. With a high participation rate of 86% of eligible voters, 50.5%
voted against forcing recognition, a margin of just 28 votes.
The ballot follows an extraordinary process of unionisation among the workforce
at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, with GMB membership growing from around 60
members in July 2022 to more than 1,400. Amazon has devoted significant
resources to opposing unionisation – including some tactics that are subject to
a legal challenge.
I have watched this process unfold from the GMB side, through a part-time
research secondment from my university. Since January I have undertaken
in-depth interviews with 11 leaders among the Amazon workers and four GMB
organisers, observed nine strike pickets and six mass strike meetings, as well
as numerous other meetings and informal conversations with around 200 workers.
The surge in union membership at Coventry began in August 2022, following
unofficial “wildcat” protests and walkouts at many Amazon UK sites. This was in
response to a long-awaited pay rise, which in the end amounted to only 50p per
hour.
Union leaders among the workers told me they were horrified that Amazon was not
doing more to support staff with the cost of living and the aftermath of the
hardships they endured as “essential workers” early in the COVID pandemic. They
also described a highly controlling work regime, in which workers were
sometimes disciplined as a result of health problems and frequently could face
poor treatment by managers.
These conditions have been widely documented and created an underlying base of
resentment which was ignited by the lower than expected pay rise.
Since 2022, and following repeated strikes, workers have won an overall pay
rise of 17% for the lowest-paid workers, and further improvements in pay for
night shift workers. But they say this still falls short of meeting their basic
needs."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
