AMAZON warehouse workers are set to rally outside the company’s London headquarters today as they begin a historic ballot on trade union recognition.
The GMB union is launching its ballot at the company’s warehouse in Coventry, hoping to mark the beginning of the end of years of exploitation and appalling working conditions.
The union needs 40 per cent of those balloted to vote in favour.
GMB national officer Andy Prendergast said: “Workers have come together because of the poverty pay and unsafe conditions Amazon has thrust upon them.
“They want the same fair pay and safe conditions any of us would demand.
“Amazon has had every chance to do the right thing — now workers are taking things into their own hands to make work better.”
GMB has worked for more than a decade to organise workers at Amazon, despite the online giant’s use of union-busting tactics including employee intimidation and recruiting hundreds of extra non-union staff to undermine balloting.
Ten years ago the union produced a damning report exposing working conditions in Amazon warehouses, including a heavily pregnant woman being forced to work, standing and bending, for 10 hours a day despite begging to be transferred to other work.
GMB also exposed shocking levels of accidents and injuries, with ambulances called to 14 Amazon warehouses 600 times over a three-year period.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak urged the Amazon workers to use the ballot to gain union recognition and win better pay and working conditions.
“Amazon workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said.
“But for far too long they have been used like throwaway labour.
“My message to staff in Coventry is simple. This is a historic chance for you and your workmates to win better pay and conditions — and a truly independent voice at work.
“Every vote counts. Make sure you vote yes.”
He condemned Amazon for using “every union-busting trick under the sun to stop workers organising for a fair deal at work.
“Their bully-boy behaviour is yet another reminder of why Labour’s New Deal for Working People is so badly needed.
“The Tories’ race to the bottom on employment standards has allowed good employers to be undercut by the bad.”
Workers will rally at 5pm on Monday outside Amazon’s London headquarters at 1 Principal Place, EC2A 2FA.
Amazon insists that staff have always had the choice to join a union.
