Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Madrid’s Amazon Workers Strike Over Rights and Wages

Amazon workers in the Spanish State are fed up and ready to fight. Last night at 10 p.m., 95% of the workforce in the largest logistics center in the country owned by Amazon have walked off the job to protest against planned wage cuts.

Sonja Krieger

March 21, 2018
Facebook Twitter Share

Last week, 75% of the workers voted for a 24-hour strike in response to Amazon’s efforts to make life harder for its employees. The workers also called for a boycott of Amazon products from March 14-22 in order to affect Father’s Day, which was on March 19.

Now, almost all of the close to 2,000 full-timers (1,100) and temporary workers (900) at the San Fernando de Henares center in suburban Madrid are on strike. While there have been similar actions organized recently by Amazon workers in France, Italy, and Germany, this is the first strike at Amazon in the Spanish State.

Several unions (CCOO, CGT, UGT, and CSIT) called the strike after Amazon decided to replace the current contract with a new contract (the provincial agreement for the logistics sector) that would involve cuts to overtime pay as well as a pay reduction for night shifts and work on holidays, a considerable cut in sick pay, a total elimination of seniority-based wage increases, and lower general wage increases that do not even keep up with inflation.

The workers are facing massive intimidation from the bosses. There are reports that Human Resources is having individual meetings with workers to ask them if they will be striking and telling them they will have to be on call next weekend to work 9-18 hours on their day off. But the workers are not deterred. At 5:30 a.m., there were pickets to stop trucks from leaving, and a rally was held at noon.

In order to diminish the effects of the strike, Amazon began diverting packages to neighboring countries. However, workers across Europe have shown support for the strike. In Poland and Germany, Amazon workers sent solidarity. In Germany, the largest warehouses announced that they will engage in a work stoppage in solidarity with the workers in the Spanish State.

Jeff Bezos is the world’s wealthiest person with a personal net worth of over $100 billion, accumulated through the sweat and hardship of Amazon workers. A worker at the San Fernando de Hanares warehouse now makes between $25,000 and $26,000 (€20,000-21,000) per year and has not seen an increase in pay since 2016. Bezos and his company want to reduce that by €1000-2000.The working conditions at Amazon in Europe and the U.S. are already nothing short of torturous or even murderous.

Workers are expected to package products at insane speeds, lift heavy items, and meet unrealistic quotas while being constantly monitored. Perpetual exhaustion and overwork are apparently what Amazon means when it boasts that it offers “attractive jobs.”

Various reports have revealed that bathroom breaks are too short, workers are discouraged from sitting down during ten-hour shifts, and there is little or no natural light in the centers. An article published in November of 2017 quotes a worker in Essex, UK saying, “Two half-hour breaks were the only time off my feet, but it was barely enough time to race to the canteen and wolf down some food to keep my energy up.”

According to the undercover investigator who wrote the piece, some workers sleep outside near the warehouse in order to make it to work on time, and almost everybody suffers regular physical injuries and acute anxiety.

This is what capitalism looks like. Amazon will not change their barbarous practices on its own, and neither will any other capitalist enterprise. The only way for workers to fight against this exploitation is to stand up, stop working, and demand their rights.

Facebook Twitter Share

Sonja Krieger

Sonja has been an editor and writer for Left Voice since 2016. She teaches college students and is an active AFT member.

Europe

Despite Threats of Arrest, Refinery Workers in France Refuse to Break Strike

As energy strikes continue, France is faced with a kerosene shortage that’s creating an urgent situation at the country’s airports. With capitalist profits on the line, the government has attempted to force Normandy refinery workers back to work through an anti-strike legal weapon called requisitions. In their first victory, refinery workers forced the police to withdraw in an incredible demonstration of solidarity.

Nathan Erderof

March 24, 2023

“We Need Action Committees Everywhere”: Building the General Strike in France

Workers across France are organizing action committees to build a general strike to take down the Macron government and the Fifth Republic.

Arthur Nicola

March 24, 2023

What’s Behind Xi Jinping’s Visit to Moscow?

Chinese president Xi Jinping has visited Moscow for the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war, in an effort to strengthen trade relations between the two countries.

Madeleine Freeman

March 23, 2023
Protesters gather during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17, 2023, the day after the French government pushed a pensions reform using the article 49.3 of the constitution. - French President's government on March 17, 2023 faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house. Across France, fresh protests erupted in the latest show of popular opposition to the bill since mid-January.

Battle of the Pensions: Toward a Pre-Revolutionary Moment in France

President Macron's use of article 49.3 to push through an unpopular pension reform bill has opened up an enormous political crisis that has changed the character of the mobilizations against the French government. We are entering a "pre-revolutionary moment" that can change the balance of power between the classes in France.

Juan Chingo

March 21, 2023

MOST RECENT

20 Years Since the U.S. Invasion of Iraq: A Reflection from a Socialist in the Heart of Imperialism

A Left Voice member and anti-war activist reflects on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and how he learned to hate U.S. imperialism.

Sam Carliner

March 20, 2023

It is Possible to Win: The Pension Reform Crisis in France

A French socialist reflects on the way forward after Macron invites Article 49.3 to pass pension reform.

Paul Morao

March 20, 2023

“We are your economy”: Trans Youth Walkout and Speak Out

The following is a speech by a young trans person as part of an action called for by NYC Youth for Trans Rights.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 20, 2023
Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023