- By Zoe Conway
- Employment correspondent
Amazon could quickly be forced to recognise a commerce union within the UK for the first time.
The GMB union says it has enrolled a majority of staff at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse which qualifies them for recognition by legislation.
It has written to the corporate asking to be recognised.
Amazon says it “respects its employees’ rights to choose to join or not join a labour union”.
The GMB believes it’s on the cusp of a historic victory after a decade of making an attempt.
If profitable, it might imply Amazon would have to negotiate with staff about their pay, holidays and sick pay.
Amanda Gearing, senior organiser of the GMB, instructed the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that the method of creating a union was “never straightforward”.
She mentioned: “There is a full process in place to try and prevent the GMB from forming, but we have the numbers now and Amazon will go out of their way to flood that warehouse with more workers so the numbers are different.”
Amazon has 10 days to reply.
It mentioned it usually evaluations pay, and that beginning pay was between £11 and £12 per hour.
“Over the past seven months, our minimum pay has risen by 10% and by more than 37% since 2018,” it added.
The union estimates that there are 1,300 staff on the Amazon distribution centre in Coventry. It says a majority – almost 700 – have joined the GMB and says meaning it has met the brink for statutory recognition.
Darren Westwood, who works on the warehouse, and who has been on the forefront of getting individuals to be part of the union, says it’s “fantastic” that recognition could be occurring quickly.
He mentioned: “It’s just so exciting because we’ve taken on one of the biggest companies in the world and won.”
If Amazon doesn’t grant recognition, the physique chargeable for resolving recognition disputes, the Central Arbitration Committee, could be requested to step in.
The CAC could mechanically grant recognition whether it is persuaded {that a} majority of the workforce desires the union to symbolize them. The workforce could be required to vote to present its assist for this.
Workers on the Coventry warehouse first began protesting about their pay final August – when solely 30 of them had been members of the GMB. They held the first ever Amazon strike within the UK in January.
Since then, the corporate has elevated its minimal beginning wage to between £11 and £12 an hour, relying on location. The union is looking for an hourly wage of £15 an hour.
But the dispute has at all times been about greater than cash. Mr Westwood mentioned a union was wanted as a result of, “it sometimes feels as if the management has no humanity”.
Having a union, he mentioned, was “about having that person on your side. It’s about having protection in your back pocket.”
