Amazon workers protest across Europe, say 'we are not robots'

New Delhi : Amazon workers across several parts of Europe protested against the company on 'Black Friday' sale day, describing the working conditions as dangerous and anti-union tactics.

Amazon employees in the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain participated in the strike. Among the major reasons behind their strike were comparatively low pay, hazardous work environments, and unreasonable performance expectations.

Employees also alleged the company of handing over physical injuries and pain.

A German worker Schmidtkunz told a news portal: “You start at the company healthy and leave it as a broken human.” 

“My doctor told me we are doing the equivalent of a marathon a day for five days straight at work. Not even professional athletes work that hard,” Eduardo Hernandez, an Amazon worker protesting at a facility outside of Madrid, said in a statement. “I used to like to play soccer on the weekends and go hiking. I don’t have the energy to do that anymore. My knees hurt. My back hurts.”

A spokesperson for UNI Global Union, an international entity that works to build alliances between unions that represent Amazon workers, told Gizmodo by email that 2,600 workers were on strike in Europe, adding that more are protesting.

Amazon, on the other hand, told Gizmodo via email that it disputes the figure.

An Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo the protests had not had any significant impact on the e-commerce behemoth on Friday, adding that it was “business as usual” at its fulfillment centers. The company also took issue with claims that it underpaid its workers and disputed accusations about poor work environments.