To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
August 22, 2022
Amazon workers across central and southern England are conducting a series of bold sit-downs, walkouts and work slowdowns at Amazon warehouses in protest of miserable pay raises from the profit-hungry capitalist e-commerce giant. These actions are organized by the workers themselves, independently of any union organization.
Computer Weekly reports it started “... on 3 August 2022 with Amazon’s LCY2 warehouse in Tilbury, Essex, when 700-1000 logistics workers spontaneously walked out after receiving a 35p pay rise offer”. (1.) This amount only represents a 3% raise at a time when inflation in the UK is pushing 10%. The workers were expecting a much larger raise. They called the Amazon offer “insulting” and sat down in the cafeteria. (2.) Videos on twitter depict the workers resisting Amazon's appeal to end their sit-down and leave the facility. (3) The management spokesman feigned sympathy for the the workers, telling them the building was hot and they should leave, prompting catcalls and shouts, “We're fine!” and “We're used to it!” The action at Tilbury, right next to London, continued into the next day. (Though Computer Weekly says the workers “walked out,” it is clear from the videos that they are striking while remaining inside the facility, which is a sit-down strike and a very effective tactic, one that the workers have resorted to without any trade union leadership.)
Meanwhile Amazon workers have now staged strike actions in at least 10 Amazon facilities over similar offers from the company. These actions took place across southern and mid-England, at Coventry, Bristol, Rugeley, Dartford, Belvedere, Hemel Hempstead and Chesterfield. Workers in these and other facilities conducted slow-downs, reportedly reducing their production to one package a day (which amounts to an outright sit-down strike!). (4.)
A worker at the Coventry facility explained their actions:
“ 'We only planned to go on strike two hours before it actually happened. We had seen the strikes at Tilbury and Rugeley fulfilment centres on TikTok during our break time, and it inspired us to strike,' they said.
“'We watched those videos at 11am, and started spreading the idea of a walkout through word of mouth around the warehouse. By 1pm, we had over 300 people who walked out and stopped working. At the beginning, we had no help with the strikes from any trade unions. We organised it all ourselves.'
“They added that, after speaking as a collective to the general manager about the reasoning behind the 50p pay rise, workers were told they would not get paid unless they returned to work: 'But everyone stayed, still refusing to go back … Our struggle is far from over. We have more collective action planned for the following days, as we keep fighting for a proper pay rise.' ” (5.)
Once the workers went into action, various unions in the UK offered support.
Computer Weekly adds: “Amazon was previously hit with a wave of strikes throughout March and April 2020, when workers across Europe and the US walked out in protest against 'unsafe working conditions' and 'corporate inaction' at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“While the strikes started in Spain and Italy around 16 March, the first US-based Amazon strikes occurred on 30 March 2020 – one at the company’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York, and one at a delivery station in Chicago.” (6.)
The UK Amazon workers are an inspiring example to Amazon workers elsewhere of the strength of common action organized by the workers themselves.
1.) “UK Amazon workers stage series of wildcat strikes over pay offers”, August 12, 2022, by Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Senior reporter, Computer Weekly.
2.) “Amazon Workers in the UK Walk Out in a Cost-of-Living Rebellion”, Morgan Meaker, Wired, August 5, 2022, .
3.) “Amazon response back to workers at Tilbury tonight”, Steve Garelick, https://twitter.com/i/status/1554927833159450631 and also here.
4.) “Amazon staff protests spread to multiple UK depots over pay dispute”, Joe Middleton and Sarah Butler, The Guardian, 5 Aug 2022.
5.) Computer Weekly, ibid. Also see “Wildcat strike at Amazon”, Anonymous Amazon Worker, August 5, 2022, Notes from Below, August 5, 2022, where the story from the worker is told in more detail.
6.) Computer Weekly, ibid.
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