CASTEL SAN GIOVANNI (Piacenza) – And the colossus’s arms crossed. Strike, yes. But also – workers ask – “consumer strike”. Translated for customers: be in solidarity with drivers and delivery staff, for a day hold back the finger with which you buy on mobile phones and PCs. In short: no purchases today. Amazon and its first international strike. Which, according to the trade unions, is gathering between 75 and 80 percent adhesions. On average, “a 75% adhesion among the drivers”, affirms the general secretary of Filt CGIL Stefano Malorgio, underlining “that the response of the workers has been important, with peaks up to the total adhesion”.
In detail, in Castel San Giovanni (Piacenza), where mainly warehouse workers with tertiary, distribution and services contracts (1,650 workers) work, between 50% and 70% of the workers in the first shift took part. While in Tuscany the participation in the strike, according to the organizers, was even higher, with peaks over 80% in Florence and over 70% in Pisa. Numbers disputed by the company, which refers to employees talking about a 10% adhesion “while our delivery service providers report an adhesion rate of around 20%. It is our priority to deliver to customers while keeping promises delivery – reiterates the American e-commerce giant – we continue to work as always, respecting our employees to exercise their rights “.
“We want – says the general secretary of Filt CGIL – that the wealth accumulated in this period of great development of e-commerce is somehow redistributed among workers from the point of view of the quality of work and wages and that Amazon respects the rules of our country first of all the representation of workers “.
Waiting to understand if the “alliance” between workers (about 40 thousand) and citizens will work, the central appointment of the protest is at 11.30 in front of the Mxp5 warehouse in Castel San Giovanni, in the Piacenza area: it is here, in the hills of Val Tidone and the Po valley, on the right bank of the river, an hour away from the center of Milan, which is home to the most important Italian distribution center for Jeff Bezos’ beast. A logistics platform that since it opened – October 2011 – has created more than 600 permanent jobs, and is still booming.
For three hours (11.30-14.30) Amazon employees – permanent and temporary – will gather in front of the gates of Strada Dogana Po. Presidium and demonstration to ask for better working conditions. On top of the requests made by the unions, attention was paid to young employees and drivers with families. To which – the confederal acronyms attack – are made to sign “contracts renewed month after month: contracts with a number of hours much lower than what has been worked, as well as vehicles characterized by precarious security measures”. To respond to the allegations, Amazon has already intervened (also on its website) reiterating that “our employees and couriers hired by third-party companies that carry out the delivery services both receive competitive wages”.
In detail: according to the company, these are employees hired “initially at the 5th level of the transport and logistics CCNL with a entry salary of 1,550 euros gross per month for full-time employees, between the highest in the industry logistics, and include a package of benefits such as discounts on the Amazon.it site and accident insurance. The couriers are hired by delivery service providers at level G1 of the CCNL transport and logistics with an entry salary of 1,644 euros gross per month for full-time employees and over 300 euros net monthly as a daily allowance. “Amazon he also underlines how “last year, at two different times, the company paid out a bonus as recognition and thanks to employees in the logistics sector and to employees of third-party suppliers for the exceptional work done during the health emergency”.
The battle is open. On the tug-of-war between Amazon and its employees, the third wheel could be decisive: the customers. For the first time at a global level, the unions have launched an appeal to citizens asking, in fact, not to make purchases today. In the hope of strengthening the workers’ protest by extending it to a “consumer strike”. “If all Italians today did not order from Amazon, but only placed them on the 23rd, a very strong signal would arrive. The profits are legitimate, God forbid, but not on the skin of the workers”, attacked the unions from Piacenza on the eve of the event.
The appeal to citizens sounds like this:
“It is an international strike, given the participation of trade unions not only in Italy”, report Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti together with Nidil-Cgil, Felsa-Cisl and Uiltemp-Uil, who represent 9,000 temporary logistics workers involved. Floriano Zorzella (Filt Cgil) explains: “We do not ask people to change their lifestyle increasingly characterized by online commerce, so much so that companies today are afloat are those that have been able to transform by opening up to this type of trade, to at the expense of another suffering supply chain “. However, they ask for a day of abstinence from orders on the platform. What will be the outcome of the first “combined” strike of Amazon workers is difficult to predict. Much will obviously depend on the repercussions on purchases in these 24 hours, provided that workers are able to convince citizens to lend a hand by giving up on-line shopping. Zorzella says again: “If Amazon and the driver companies that collaborate with her do not want to sit at the table and discuss with us the conditions of a better job, it is evident that we will proclaim other strike days “.
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