As Americans scoured the internet in search of shopping deals on Friday, Amazon.com warehouse workers in Europe were protesting the e-commerce giant - in some cases walking off the job to highlight what they said were unsafe working conditions and low pay.
The protests struck Amazon across the continent, including in Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. In Britain, union officials representing Amazon workers predicted that hundreds would appear at protests throughout the day in five locations.
"The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly inhuman," said Tim Roache, general secretary of GMB, in a statement on the organization's website. "They are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances."
Earlier this year, the UK-based group said a Freedom of Information request aimed at first-responders showed that ambulances had responded to calls for help at Amazon facilities roughly 600 times over the past three years.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment but told the Guardian: "Our European Fulfillment Network is fully operational and we continue to focus on delivering for our customers and reports to the contrary are simply wrong." (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)
More than 600 workers have gone on strike in Germany, where workers earn a starting salary of about $12 an hour, according to Reuters. And in Spain, one employee told The Associated Press that the walkout was deliberately timed for "one of the days that Amazon has most sales." Amazon Workers Use Black Friday To Protest ''Inhuman'' Working Conditions Read In Black Friday is a huge deal in Europe. So Amazon workers there are walking off the job in protest.
Amazon workers in Spain, Germany and Britain went on strike on the day of the "Black Friday" sales.
Highlights Protests struck Amazon in Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK More than 600 workers have gone on strike in Germany Amazon defended its workforce record in a statement to Mashable
As Americans scoured the internet in search of shopping deals on Friday, Amazon.com warehouse workers in Europe were protesting the e-commerce giant - in some cases walking off the job to highlight what they said were unsafe working conditions and low pay.
The protests struck Amazon across the continent, including in Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. In Britain, union officials representing Amazon workers predicted that hundreds would appear at protests throughout the day in five locations.
"The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly inhuman," said Tim Roache, general secretary of GMB, in a statement on the organization's website. "They are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances."
Earlier this year, the UK-based group said a Freedom of Information request aimed at first-responders showed that ambulances had responded to calls for help at Amazon facilities roughly 600 times over the past three years.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment but told the Guardian: "Our European Fulfillment Network is fully operational and we continue to focus on delivering for our customers and reports to the contrary are simply wrong." (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)
More than 600 workers have gone on strike in Germany, where workers earn a starting salary of about $12 an hour, according to Reuters. And in Spain, one employee told The Associated Press that the walkout was deliberately timed for "one of the days that Amazon has most sales."
"These are days when we can hurt more and make ourselves be heard because the company has not listened to us," said Eduardo Hernandez, in an interview with the AP. Spanish employees last walked out in May, when workers at an Amazon facility near Madrid went on strike during the company's annual Prime Day sales event. (www.ndtv.com)
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