Services

Amazon Workers Strike in Germany

Jeff Bezos
By Steve Jurvetson CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) continues to face labor troubles in Germany. Workers at two of Amazon’s logistics centers began a one-day strike Thursday morning that could see more than 1,000 employees on the picket lines.

The workers’ union, Ver.di, has been seeking a change in the way Amazon classifies its warehouse workers. The first job action came almost a year ago, in May, when 500 workers walked off the job. A similar walk-out occurred in November, and the most recent came in late March.

ALSO READ: Amazon’s German Workers Walk Out Again

The union is repeating its demand that workers be paid wages according to the national standard for the mail order and retail sectors. Amazon classifies the employees as logistics workers who are paid on a lower scale. The company said its employees are paid above-average wages for that classification.

Amazon has countered the union’s demands with an offer for holiday bonuses, but it has refused even to talk with union representatives. The company insists on talking only to its own employee work councils. The company also claims that it pays its warehouse workers at the upper end of the logistics’ workers scale.

Amazon employs about 9,000 permanent fulfillment center workers in Germany and thousands more temporary workers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Amazon has never held any collective bargaining sessions with any union or group of employees anywhere, at any time, and very likely never will. The company already makes only the tiniest of profits when it makes any profit at all.

Amazon shares closed at $323.68 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $245.75 to $408.06. The stock was inactive in the premarket Thursday.

ALSO READ: Amazon’s New Grocery Delivery Service

The Average American Has No Idea How Much Money You Can Make Today (Sponsor)

The last few years made people forget how much banks and CD’s can pay. Meanwhile, interest rates have spiked and many can afford to pay you much more, but most are keeping yields low and hoping you won’t notice.

But there is good news. To win qualified customers, some accounts are paying almost 10x the national average! That’s an incredible way to keep your money safe and earn more at the same time. Our top pick for high yield savings accounts includes other benefits as well. You can earn up to 3.80% with a Checking & Savings Account today Sign up and get up to $300 with direct deposit. No account fees. FDIC Insured.

Click here to see how much more you could be earning on your savings today. It takes just a few minutes to open an account to make your money work for you.

 

Our top pick for high yield savings accounts includes other benefits as well. You can earn up to 4.00% with a Checking & Savings Account from Sofi. Sign up and get up to $300 with direct deposit. No account fees. FDIC Insured.

1 https://www.fdic.gov/national-rates-and-rate-caps

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.

AI Portfolio

Discover Our Top AI Stocks

Our expert who first called NVIDIA in 2009 is predicting 2025 will see a historic AI breakthrough.

You can follow him investing $500,000 of his own money on our top AI stocks for free.