Make Amazon pay day
Today I went to support my fellow union colleagues for the world wide strike at Amazon. Here in North-West Germany we gathered at their new location in Achim.
The strike started with the late night shift on November 24th and went on for 24 hours.
Let's start small
When the starting crew arrived they were only 7 coworkers to get things rolling. Three shifts were to be talked to and explained what was happening.
Union law is quite strong in Germany. It starts with §9 of our constitution. One of the first ten paragraphs, that is how important it was for a democratic Germany after the war.
But sadly most people fear the stigma of being associated with a union. 😞
And then we grow
After a one hour drive I arrived for support and give my colleagues from the night shift a break.
Two shifts were already talked to and the third and final shift was about to start. The number of supporters and employees on strike had grown significantly. Even though, compared to the total number of 2500 employees the 50 people that already joined seems small, it was an important step forward.
It was the first strike action at that location and the first time for most employees there to have contact with the union. A lot of them were scared when we tried talking to them.
The moment we recognized the fear or resentment we turned away to not antagonize them further. Some of them were brave enough to take a flyer, by the end of my shift I managed to distribute all of the 150 flyers a was given.
The first step is done
Thanks to a lot of volunteers and supporting people coming to help us, at the end of the day we had convinced about 80 people to join us in this first action.
All in all we distributed 1500 flyers and got things going. Those flyers are now inside the Amazon building. Yes, most likely they will end up in the trash. But people are talking. And maybe start thinking.
They will keep talking to each other and to those coming back to work tomorrow and over time with more actions like this one it will grow.
Language is a huge problem. According to one of the local union representatives there are about 100 different languages among 2500 employees and English is not always an option.
We cover most common languages in the flyers but for the most part we rely on people talking to each other.
For a brighter future
We fight for better working conditions, better pay and the protection of a union contract. Less temporary employment but steady jobs for steady income without fear of losing the job on a whim.
One day we will get there.
edit: We made it into the local news:
https://www.butenunbinnen.de/nachrichten/streik-amazon-verdi-achim-100.html
In the video I'm the guy at the beginning with the hat handing out flyers. 🤠