Amazon warehouse employees in the U.K. are striking again, with approximately 60 union members joining a picket line Thursday a year after the company endured its first-ever labor strike in the country.
The e-commerce giant opened the new 500 million pound ($636 million) fulfillment center in Sutton Coldfield, England, at the end of 2023 after the closure of another facility. The facility is the third Amazon workplace to face strike action.
In the U.K., Amazon workers have taken nearly 30 days of strike action in the past year, with more than 1,000 workers walking off the job to mark the retail giant’s Black Friday event in November.
The 500,000-member GMB Union is representing the warehouse staff, like it has in the previous strikes since January 2023. GMB has been adamant about Amazon isn’t paying their staff enough, repeatedly calling on the tech titan to raise starting pay to at least 15 pounds ($19.07) an hour.
“GMB members at Amazon have faced a year of struggle against an employer determined to stop their union,” Rachel Fagan, a GMB organizer, said in a statement. “Amazon bosses will be hoping the industrial chaos will disappear; but instead it’s growing every day. For workers to down tools at Amazon’s new Birmingham HQ, just weeks after it opened its doors, goes to show how furious Amazon workers in the U.K. are. One year on from the first strike day, the message from GMB members at Amazon is the same; recognize GMB and end poverty pay.”
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While the first picket line started at 6:30 a.m. local time, more picketing would take place later in the day when shifts change, according to the union.
Sourcing Journal reached out to the GMB Union for comment.
Starting pay for Amazon employees is between 11 pounds ($14) and 12 pounds ($15.26) per hour, depending on the location, but will bump up to between 12.30 pounds ($15.64) and 13 pounds ($16.53) per hour in April.
“That’s a 20 percent increase over two years and 50 percent since 2018,” an Amazon spokesperson said, noting that the company regularly reviews its pay to offer competitive wages and benefits.
According to Amazon, roughly 2,000 people are employed at the fulfillment center, with the company saying that only 19 workers voted in favor of industrial action.
“It will cause zero disruption for our customers,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
Amazon Labor Union “pretty much broke”
As the work stoppage in the U.K. rages on, Amazon’s unionization efforts in the U.S. are still under the microscope. But the future of the most successful Amazon union thus far appears to be uncertain.
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which won the first unionization effort for Amazon employees in a Staten Island, N.Y. warehouse, is reportedly struggling financially and is still far from establishing a labor contract with the Big Tech company.
While vice president Michelle Nieves told the Wall Street Journal that the union is “pretty much broke,” president and whistleblower-turned-organizer Chris Smalls said the ALU has seen fewer donations since 2022, when it received more than $750,000 in contributions.
The union had relied heavily on donations since its inception, the report said, but many of these donations have already been spent.
Sourcing Journal reached out to Smalls.
To make matters worse, the union still can’t collect mandatory fees from workers because it doesn’t have a contract with Amazon.
Amazon has still yet to recognize the union victory. The company is currently challenging the “JFK8” warehouse election results, as well as the conduct of both the union and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which upheld the win early last year.
On top of the financial hardships, there has been apparent infighting in the ALU, with a splinter group of organizers suing the union last July for allegedly refusing to hold democratic elections to fill leadership positions.
Momentum for organization stalled after the inaugural Staten Island win. Two other Amazon facilities, a second Staten Island warehouse and the Bessemer, Ala. location that started the push, have seen their unionization votes fall short. A third election in Albany failed to secure enough union votes in 2022.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), union density fell in 2023 to just 10 percent of the overall workforce. In the private sector, union density remained stuck at 6 percent.
“The just-announced drop in union density continues an ongoing trend that shows no sign of ending,” said Glenn Spencer, senior vice president of the employment policy division at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a blog post. “A company with a failing business model that people aren’t buying will change what it’s doing, or it won’t survive. It’s a lesson unions don’t seem to have learned, and the decline of the ALU appears to be yet another example.”