“EXCITING times!” — the opening words of a conversation I recently had with Darren Westwood, who has become one of the faces and voices of the historic dispute at Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Coventry. 

“We’ve shied away from unions for too long. People have been apathetic and feeling a sense of hopelessness.”

This Brummie and son of a squaddie tells me he’s had quite a chequered career, but the strike at Amazon has been a defining moment.

He tells me he’s had quite a few jobs in the past, including managerial posts, but had become disenchanted with them and moved on.

I ask him whether he liked the job at Amazon and was that why he’d stayed? He says he didn’t like the job that much, but saw the dispute as the private being political. “We the workers are leading this strike, it’s a member-led action.” 

Ferdousara Uddin, a GMB official who  has been described as a human dynamo for the energy and work rate at the Amazon strike, confirms that the workers have been at the fore of the dispute.

“They’ve decided the strike dates, they’ve done all the translating of materials, they’ve promoted union membership, they’ve been key to the success of the picketing.”

She says the union had done “gate work” for some time before the action got under way and had recruited a small number of members. But Amazon has been its own worst enemy. 

Westwood says Amazon had fired the starting pistol at what is now an infamous meeting managers called on August 4 2022.

He described how each section of the warehouse workforce was called by managers into the canteen to be given the good news about pay.

He says: “Rumours had been swirling around about £12 per hour up from £9.98 with the loss of some overtime rates.

“We were all hyped up.”

Never had there been such a palpable sense of bitter disappointment when managers said, with apparent glee: “You’re all going to get an extra 50p an hour.”

Westwood says: “I genuinely think they thought there was going to be a round of applause.”

Instead the workers said: “What the…?” 

“This insult came after we’d worked full-on during the pandemic, working when everyone else was staying at home, making gigantic profits for Amazon, we couldn’t believe this offer.” 

Amazon is renowned for poor working conditions and its computer monitoring and surveillance, and this offer sparked a huge sense of unfairness, leading to a spontaneous four-hour meeting during which managers told workers to get back to work or be clocked out.

“Next day, Friday August 5, started a bit chaotically,” Westwood says.

“We’d agreed to meet offsite to discuss what was going to happen.”

Some waited by Coventry’s Lady Godiva statue, others outside Primark and more outside the warehouse gate.

“Eventually, we met with GMB officials and decided to hold a ballot in September.”

This was lost by three votes.

“Some heads went down,” says Westwood. He tells me that managers became increasingly hostile, they were emboldened.

Westwood describes how managers started following him around, even to the toilet.

He continues: “About 10 of us attended a short GMB-run leadership course and around then we started getting workers at the fulfilment centre translating union materials into community languages — there must be at least 20 different languages spoken.”

A reballoting decision was taken, launching in November. Uddin says this was when she started work for GMB and was thrust straight into the Amazon dispute.

“We needed to not only translate union materials, we needed to produce some rudimentary videos explaining balloting, even how to post a ballot.

“This was something many workers simply had not experienced.”

The reballot result was announced in December. More than 98 per cent of workers voting to strike on a ballot turnout of more than 63 per cent.

The demand was for £15 an hour and it was agreed to begin the campaign with a 24-hour strike from midnight on January 25 2023.

“This was a moment of history,” agree Westwood and Uddin. “It required enormous courage,” Uddin says.

“Workers had been ‘prepped’ on what to expect and explaining their rights, but bravery was needed.”

She goes on to say: “The act of leaving their work station, clocking out, passing a line formed of managers that appeared to be an act of intimidation, crossing the bridge and walking out into the night was both emotionally and physically demanding for many of the one hundred or so workers that took strike action that night.” 

They were greeted by cheering and applause from members of the community support group which Westwood and Uddin also agree has been so critical to sustaining the morale of strikers.

This 24-hour strike broke the mould. A week-long strike followed from March 13 and, since then, a further 16 days of strike action have taken place.

The number of union members has increased tenfold. One hundred has turned into one thousand.

Uddin has become a feature of the pickets, literally a cheerleader, striding among the pickets with megaphone in hand, providing enthusiastic and animated encouragement.

“I often leave the picket line having lost my voice,” she says, “but I’m happy to lose my voice if I can give workers theirs.” 

I say to Westwood that I’ve seen his confidence grow. He says confidence has grown among all the strikers.

He says a good example of this was when strikers visited the Houses of Parliament, most speaking for the first time to an MP. 

Uddin remarks that the strike picket and accompanying demonstration draws up to 600 strikers.

She says: “It’s noticeable how good-natured it is, strikers share their experience of how they became involved in the strike with those yet to join, often conversing in their own language, offering friendly encouragement, but never intimidation.”

This, despite managers filming the strikers and setting up some strike-breakers to be deliberately provocative.

Westwood tells me that personally, the strike has had some strange twists and turns, including Amazon managers offering him various managerial jobs and his dad telling him, after seeing him after one of his countless media interviews, how proud he is of his son.

Today, Saturday August 5 2023, a rally is planned to recognise a year of struggle.

Uddin says: “We’ve already learnt lots of lessons and the GMB officials involved in the Amazon strike have become an exceptional team.”

Westwood, who has been a moving force in this strike, concludes: “We are going to win, it’s too important not to, a successful struggle over this grasping, greedy giant will show others in this sector that size doesn’t matter, sticking together does.”

Phil Street is secretary of Coventry Trade Union Council.