UK Amazon workers stage series of wildcat strikes over pay offers

A wave of unofficial wildcat strikes is sweeping across Amazon’s UK warehouses, with hundreds of workers across the country independently staging walkouts, sit-ins and work slowdowns in protest of derisory pay rises from the e-commerce giant.

Starting on 3 August 2022 with Amazon’s LCY2 warehouse in Essex, when 700 logistics workers spontaneously walked out after receiving a 35p pay rise offer, Amazon staff have now staged strike actions in at least 10 Amazon facilities over similar offers from the company.

At the time of publication, Amazon workers also have staged wildcat strikes (meaning they were conducted without the involvement or support of a union) in Rugeley, Coventry, Swindon, Rugby, Doncaster, Bristol, Dartford, Belvedere, Hemel Hempstead and Chesterfield, with more expected in the coming days.

The strike actions taken so far include walk-outs from shifts, sit-ins in the warehouse canteens, and work slowdowns, whereby workers are actively attempting to not reach their productivity targets. Workers at some of the facilities are, for example, processing one package an hour, so they can still be paid.

At each of the warehouse sites, Amazon – which does not recognise unions in any of its UK warehouses – offered its work force pay rises between 35p and 50p per hour, depending on their locations and amount of time at the company. While the offer represents a 3% increase on current salaries, the June 2022 inflation rate was 9.4%.

“Starting pay for Amazon employees will be increasing to a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45p/h, depending on location. This represents a 29% increase in the minimum hourly wage paid to Amazon associates since 2018,” said an Amazon spokesperson.

“On top of this, employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package that includes private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals, an employee discount and more, which combined are worth thousands of pounds annually, as well as a company pension plan.”

Writing in Notes From Below, a publication dedicated to documenting the everyday struggles of working class people against capitalism and the state, an anonymous Amazon worker from Coventry noted that warehouse staff had been waiting for information about the pay rise since April, and were expecting at least another £2 per hour. Instead, they were offered 50p.

“We only planned to go on strike two hours before it actually happened. We had seen the strikes at Tilbury and Rugeley fulfilment centres on TikTok during our break time, and it inspired us to strike,” they said.

“We watched those videos at 11am, and started spreading the idea of a walkout through word of mouth around the warehouse. By 1pm, we had over 300 people who walked out and stopped working. At the beginning, we had no help with the strikes from any trade unions. We organised it all ourselves.”

They added that, after speaking as a collective to the general manager about the reasoning behind the 50p pay rise, workers were told they would not get paid unless they returned to work: “But everyone stayed, still refusing to go back…Our struggle is far from over. We have more collective action planned for the following days, as we keep fighting for a proper pay rise.”