![]() Stuart Richards (GMB union Senior organizer): This is an employer that isn’t exactly known for its good employment relations and certainly not its relationship with the trade unions. Ross Domoney (narrator): The GMB union, which has nearly 460,000 members across all industrial sectors, stepped in to support the Amazon workers after they were offered a pay rise of just 50 pence. ![]() It’s an insult, and I feel like Amazon can do more. So Amazon was sending deliveries outside so that means they have earned, they are one of the companies that have earned a lot during the pandemic and considering such a huge gain and then paying their workers who have put in that hard work, just 50p. Most importantly, it was one of the most busiest periods in Amazon, because Amazon was one of the companies that was still sending orders and deliveries outside because people didn’t have the chance to go out. It was a very depressing era with the COVID going on, with the social distancing.We were still coming to work, but we were not allowed to socially connect with each other due to the rules and regulations that was being put in place. Yeah, do you want better pay? Everyone wants better pay. I work in Amazon, I know right. I worked through the pandemic in Amazon. So we’re out here on this picket line just making them realize some of the information encouraging them to be part of the picket line. Mike Ekiesesay (Amazon worker and GMB union representative): The cars here in the long queue most of them want to be a member, but they don’t know. “The president forced our comrade to die”-South Korea’s workers confront Yoon Seok Yeol’s labor crackdown More stories on international labor organizing. Protester: You’ve got the right to go and talk to anyone who’s in the queue. Police officer: All I’d like, Okay, is for the traffic to flow so I can unblock the island Ross Domoney (narrator): Employees at this warehouse in Coventry are making history as they stage the first ever strike against Amazon in the UK. Mike Ekiesesay (Amazon worker and GMB union representative): Are you a member ma’am as well? Are you a member? ![]() Ross Domoney (narrator): Their managers look on, as the strikers try to get more workers on their side. “Bring your colleagues on the picket line and show strength!” Ross Domoney (narrator): Amazon workers have just blocked the road leading to their workplace. Protester: Strike. You can turn round if you want. This is a picket line. This story, with the support of the Bertha Foundation, is part of The Real News Network’s Workers of the World series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms. ![]() Producer, Videographer, and Video Editor: Ross Domoney This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe. In the latest installment of our Workers of the World series, Ross Domoney reports from the Amazon picket line in Coventry. Now, hundreds of workers at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry have joined the wave of strikes and have made history as the first group of workers to strike at Amazon in the UK. As the cost-of-living crisis deepens around the globe, workers across industries in the UK-from healthcare and railway workers to civil servants and university lecturers-have been resorting to industrial strike action to secure the increased pay they desperately need. Amazon’s business, and Jeff Bezos’s wealth, expanded at a dizzying pace over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic meanwhile, Amazon workers continue to burn out from the relentless pace of work and are struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
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