A THREE-DAY strike at the Amazon distribution warehouse in Madrid started today (Monday) aimed at coinciding with the online retailer's 'Prime Day' for maximum impact.
Workers at the plant in San Fernando de Henares in the wider Greater Madrid region have reportedly been negotiating a renewal of their collective employment conditions agreement but, after over a fortnight of talks, 'insufficient progress' has been made, according to one of Spain's major unions, the Labourers' Commissions (CCOO), which is representing them.
The latest proposals by Amazon Spain do not include any of the requests put forward, says the CCOO – annual pay rises in line with inflation have been rejected and the firm is only willing to give staff 1.1% a year, which the union says means they are gradually becoming worse off.
And the company has not agreed to pay them inflation-linked increases in arrears, a CCOO representative says.
The union complains Amazon Spain is 'deliberately procrastinating' and is 'doing nothing to avoid industrial action'.
'Prime Day', which involves over a million special offers for Amazon Prime customers worldwide, started today at noon and will continue until midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, July 17), but employees have been on strike since this morning and will continue until Thursday morning unless agreements are reached with the company within that time.
Amazon was expecting to improve on its results from last year's Prime Day, when it reported a sales hike of 60% more than on the same date in 2016.
Prime Day has become Amazon's biggest discount shopping event in the company's history, shifting more stock than on Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays.
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