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Members and supporters of the GMB union demonstrate outside the Amazon.com offices in Milton Keynes, England, while the company holds its annual Black Friday sales. (Leon Neal / Getty Images)
Brian Fung
Political reporter specialized in telecommunications, media, crypto-currencies and competition
As Americans browsed the Internet looking for bargains this Friday, Amazon.com's warehouse workers in Europe were protesting the e-commerce giant.
The protests have affected Amazon across the continent, including Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. In Britain, union officials representing Amazon workers predicted that hundreds of people would participate in protests throughout the day in five different locations.
"The working conditions of our members at Amazon are downright inhuman," GMB Secretary General Tim Roache said in a statement posted on the organization's website. "They break their bones, are stunned and taken away in ambulances."
Earlier this year, the UK-based group said that a request for access to information for first responders indicated that ambulances had responded to calls for help. in Amazon facilities about 600 times in the last three years.
"Our European distribution network is fully operational," Amazon said in a statement to the Washington Post. "And we continue to focus our efforts on delivering to our customers and the opposite reports are simply wrong." (The founder and head of the company, Amazon.com, Jeffrey P. Bezos is owner of The Post.)
More than 600 workers went on strike in Germany, where they earn a starting salary of about 12 dollars at the hour, according to Reuters. In Spain, an employee told The Associated Press that the walkout had been deliberately scheduled for "one of the days when Amazon has the most sales".
"These are days when we can do more harm and make ourselves heard because society has not listened to us," said Eduardo Hernandez, in an interview with the AP.
The last Spanish employees left in May, when workers at an Amazon factory near Madrid launched a strike on the company's annual Prime Day sale.
Friday's real-world protests were quickly put online as workers and supporters of the strike used the hashtag #AmazonWeAreNotRobots to broadcast the campaign.
Amazon defended its roadmap in its statement in the mail.
"Amazon has invested more than 27 billion euros and created more than 75,000 permanent jobs in Europe since 2010," the statement said. "These are good jobs with a very competitive salary, comprehensive benefits and innovative training programs such as Career Choice that prepay 95% of the tuition fees for associates. We provide safe and positive working conditions and encourage anyone to come and see for themselves by taking a guided tour in one of our distribution centers. "
Although the Black Friday shopping frenzy is closely related to Thanksgiving in the United States, retailers have increasingly begun to offer the same significant discounts to international audiences. According to some analysts, the Black Friday agreements should generate an additional $ 2 billion business turnover for retailers in Europe.
The goal of the Amazon workers' arrival is to put an end to these expenses and force the online platform to make concessions to its employees. This effort comes as the company faces scrutiny following its decision to install two new US headquarters in northern Virginia and Long Island City, after encouraging dozens of metropolitan leaders to compete for to obtain the favors of society. Critics have called it a publicity stunt in favor of two regions in the United States that are already experiencing economic success, not to mention one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world.
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