Coventry Amazon workers picketing on Tuesday morning (Picture: Sean Leahy)
Amazon workers in Coventry took to picket lines on Tuesday morning for a 48-hour strike in the latest phase of their pay battle.
The GMB union members won’t be fighting alone. At the Minworth site, near Birmingham, workers plan to strike on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.
Workers are battling for at least £15 an hour as well as for drastic changes to their working conditions.
Many of those who are taking part in the strike will be experienced organisers and pickets.
Workers at the BHX4 site in Coventry have struck repeatedly since January 2023. There are now around 1,100 members of the GMB at the site.
Workers are close to achieving an over 50 percent union density needed to force the bosses to recognise the workers’ chosen union.
The impressive fightback has meant that they have already won a 17 percent increase in pay, but have a lot more to fight for.
The Minworth site is a new high-tech fulfilment centre where workers struck once in January.
They have concerns not only about pay but also about unfairly harsh disciplinary practices and management’s constant monitoring of their every move.
Many of those at the site have transferred from Coventry, so they have also transferred lessons learned about organising to a new location.
Workers from Coventry also made sure to visit the picket in Minworth to show solidarity and support.
It’s a step forward that workers are striking at two sites within a week of each other. But walkouts at the same time would hit Amazon harder.
Strike leaders at both sites should coordinate strikes on the same days. They must also keep pushing for workers at other sites to join the action.
Campaigners in Britain are calling for solidarity with Egyptian trade unionists who took part in a very important strikes but are now jailed.
Police arrested five textile workers after a successful strike by thousands of workers at Misr Spinning and Weaving Company’s massive factory in Mahalla al-Kubra in late February.
The walkout won pay rises to combat the spiralling cost of living, which has plunged millions of Egyptians deep into poverty.
Initial signatories for the solidarity appeal include Labour MP John McDonnell, and union leaders Maryam Eslamdoust of the TSSA, Patrick Roach of NASUWT, Julia Mwaluke, vice-president of Unison, and Pat Davis, vice-chair of the executive committee of Unite.
The MENA Solidarity campaign group statement calls, “on the Egyptian government to stop repression of strikes and protests and cease attacks on trade union organising.
It adds, “The British government must end its complicity in these abuses by stopping arms sales to Egypt.”
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