German trade union Verdi recently called for strikes to commence at
six of Amazon’s sites in the country starting on Sunday, as it tries to bring
the e-commerce corporation to the recognise the bargain over wage structures. The
union said the sites in Rheinberg, Werne, Koblenz, Leipzig and two other
locations have signalled an unofficial start to the talks, as per a report by
Reuters.

The industries majorly affected and going into the talks as primary areas
of concern are retail and mail order.

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“Amazon is making a mint in the coronavirus crisis. For this
reason alone, wage evasion must be stopped there”, Reuters quoted Verdi
representative Orhan Akman as saying.

Amazon in Germany has found itself embroiled in longstanding battles
over better pay as well as work conditions since 2013, with logistics workers being
the ones to stage strikes frequently in the last few years.

The e-commerce giant had noted earlier that during previous calls for
strikes, more than 90% of employees in logistical centres worked normally.

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The Western European market is the biggest for Amazon in the continent,
and second largest in the world after United States, which, incidentally, has also
seen calls for unionisation strengthen in the last few days.

At the very centre of the protests in the US is one of Amazon’s warehouses
in Alabama, which has been the venue of a strict contest between 5,800 employees
and the multinational corporation over acutely similar issues of workplace
condition and wage structure, a seemingly systemic condition inside Amazon.

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The whole workforce had voted earlier to bring in the consensus of
whether it needed a union.

Voting results are due to come out on Tuesday.