Amazon strikes spread to new site

Workers at an Amazon fulfilment centre in Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham will strike on 25 January, after members of the GMB union at the workplace voted for industrial action over pay and conditions.

The centre, where GMB says "up to 100" workers will strike, is the latest workplace to be brought into the union's campaign in Amazon. The 25 January date marks the one-year anniversary of GMB's campaign of strikes in Amazon sites, overwhelmingly concentrated at the BHX4 facility in Coventry, where workers have so far struck 28 times. Strikes have also taken place at a warehouse in Rugeley, Staffordshire, where workers have recently renewed their industrial action mandate.

Although GMB's membership at the Sutton Coldfield site comprises only a minority of the workforce, meaning the strike will have little direct economic impact on Amazon's profits, spreading the strikes beyond BHX4 has symbolic significance. Activists have long argued that spreading action, and empowering workers in other Amazon workplaces, is key to forcing significant concessions from the company.

Since the strikes began, Amazon has made a number of incremental increases to its basic rates of pay, which are due to rise to £12.30/hour in April. GMB is demanding a minimum wage of £15. GMB has also been carrying out organising activity at Amazon warehouses in Swansea, Doncaster, and elsewhere. Building substantial bases in large workplaces, similar to the 1,000-plus members the union now has at BHX4, is vital, but GMB is right to empower smaller groups of members to take action even before a majority of the workforce has joined the union.