By Socialist Alternative members in Coventry
One year ago, workers at Amazon in the UK walked out in protest against an insulting pay ‘rise’. Bosses would have hoped that this was a flash in the pan that would soon die out. What has transpired since has been a truly courageous and inspiring struggle, with workers at the BHX4 site in Coventry taking the first ever official industrial action at an Amazon facility in the UK in January of this year.
The struggle spreads
Over 20 days of strikes have taken place since January, while the movement for £15 per hour and unionisation has taken a big step forward with the site at Rugeley in Staffordshire also joining the fray, taking their first action on 3 and 4 August.
This totemic struggle contains many lessons for the entire labour movement. Not least that struggle for clear demands encourages people to join the union. Beginning with a few dozen members, the GMB now has over 1,000 in the Coventry facility alone.
Leading activists at the Coventry site wanted to mark the one year anniversary of the beginning of the fight with a rally outside BHX4. The call went far and wide, with trade unionists travelling from London, Manchester, East Anglia and other parts of the country to show support.
Mass picketing gets results
The pickets during the strike have been enormous – sometimes reaching 4-500 workers. Amazon tried to counter this, erecting huge fences around the site and the roads approaching the entrance in an effort to deter the workers. This had no impact, with further big pickets. And a victory was scored on the day of the one year anniversary rally with Amazon sending workers home at 3pm on full pay and telling the night shift workers not to come in.
Despite the poor weather, hundreds attended the rally, hearing speakers from different unions and campaigns, including PCS, GMB, RCN and NHS Workers Say No, local trade unionists and Amazon workers from Coventry and Rugeley. At the rally itself there was also the presence of members of Acorn (renters organisation) UNISON, UCU, RMT, Unite, NEU and many other activists.
Solidarity from across the movement, here and internationally
As an example of how inspiring the struggle has been, a solidarity message from Kevin Corran, Assistant Branch Secretary of Greater Manchester Mental Health UNISON branch and a member of UNISON’s National Executive Council, sums up the feeling of many trade unionists:
“Over the last 12 months, our trade union branch has been supporting and following your dispute, particularly in Coventry. We have found the action by your members to be inspirational. During this Cost of Living Crisis, workers have had to get organised and use the most powerful weapon we have, strike action, to struggle for a decent life for ourselves, our families and our communities. We hope the national rally goes well, and it gives your members the confidence and encouragement to continue their struggle.”
Solidarity
It is not just trade unionists here that have been inspired. Workers from the unionisation drive at the Amazon Airhub in Northern Kentucky in the US (KCVG) sent a video message conveying their solidarity.
Support also came in from Kshama Sawant, elected representative for Socialist Alternative on Seattle City Council who wrote:
“As the socialist city councilmember in Seattle – home to Amazon’s headquarters – I send my utmost support to striking Amazon workers in Coventry and Rugeley. The strike is the most important tool for working-class fightback.
Three years ago, Socialist Alternative and my office led the victorious movement to win the Amazon Tax, a nearly $300 million per year tax on Amazon and the city’s richest corporations to fund affordable housing. We won despite the strenuous opposition of billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Seattle’s Democratic Party politicians.
Right now in Kentucky, workers at Amazon’s largest air hub in the world, called KCVG, are fighting to unionize. This is the most important union drive taking place in the US right now. We must join together across continents to take on the Amazon bosses everywhere.
Good luck on your strikes this weekend. Solidarity from Socialist Alternative and the American working class!”
Continue the fight!
The Saturday rally was a further confidence boost for this pioneering group of workers. They have stood up to one of the world’s richest men and his big business empire. Now the full weight of the entire movement must mobilise and get behind them, to turn this heroic struggle into a historic victory that will go down as one of the most courageous battles to have been waged against exploitation and oppression in the workplace.
Socialist Alternative members attended the rally and distributed a leaflet that included the text below
One year of inspiring Amazon strikes: Escalate and spread to win!
It is one year since workers walked out to say enough of low pay and being treated like robots, whilst Jeff Bezos increases his obscene wealth off the back of Amazon workers. The strike action has been groundbreaking and inspiring for workers everywhere who face a severe cost of living crisis.
Workers have shown that barriers such as intimidation and Tory anti-trade union laws can be smashed through. The huge increase in union membership is a lesson for the union movement. If unions take action, workers will join. The Amazon pickets have been enormous and this has instilled confidence in workers in other sectors fighting their own battles.
The fight is growing – now it must be escalated further
The news that Rugeley became the second facility to take strike action is a huge step forward. But we can’t stop there. We need to involve more Amazon workplaces in the action, building towards a coordinated nationwide stoppage. The GMB alongside other unions should use their full resources to step up the union drive in other facilities and involve striking workers in building worker- led Amazon unions.
Expanding the union into more facilities will help to pre- empt the employer’s threats of closing down facilities and breaking the strike through using other centres. And given the international nature of Amazon’s Empire, workers across different countries need to link up to bring work to a halt.
The role of the trade union movement
Union branches have so far donated tens of thousands of pounds which is brilliant. But this should be stepped up. The Trade Union Congress and all individual unions, including GMB, have enormous funds. They should be fully mobilising their resources to ensure practical support for the Amazon workers in building the biggest strike fund to date. Activists from across the sector and wider need to come together to plan for the coordinated strike action that will be necessary to win.
Solidarity with Amazon workers at KCVG Air Hub in the United States
It is not just in Coventry where things are heating up. A titanic battle is currently taking place at the Northern Kentucky Air Hub (an enormous Amazon airport vital for the whole profit making operation) where members of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) are fighting for $30 per hour, increased breaks/leave, workplace translation (many workers are not native English speakers) and full union recognition.
KCVG workers have formed an Organising Committee made up of active shop floor workers to democratically discuss and agree the way forward for their campaign. These are methods which could be taken up here to further strengthen the struggle.
Amazon and Bezos can be defeated!
Amazon has paid hardly any tax in the UK, and they should be forced to pay more, as they were in Seattle following a mass campaign led by Socialist Alternative Councilmember Kshama Sawant.
Linked to this, we need to fight for public ownership of Amazon and the enormous companies and banks that dominate our society. Capitalism as a system rests on the exploitation of working class people and the planet. We need to unite together as workers across borders to fight for socialist change, so production is for need, not profit.
