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News > Italy

Amazon Italy Workers on Strike Over Labor Conditions

  • Amazon workers demonstrate outside of the warehouse in Tuscany on March 22, 2021.

    Amazon workers demonstrate outside of the warehouse in Tuscany on March 22, 2021." | Photo: Twitter/@cgiltoscana

Published 22 March 2021
Opinion

Protests over similar demands occurred last year at  Amazon warehouses in the U.S. and Europe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company refuses to acknowledge the requests.

Thousands of Amazon workers went on a strike on Monday over labor conditions as they demand changes to workloads, shifts, and benefits.

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Trade unions FILT-CGIL, FIT-CISL, and Uiltrasporti carried out a 24-hour nationwide strike, including warehouses in Italy, Tuscany, Florence, and Pisa. According to the unions, it is the first national strike to affect Amazon's entire operations in the country.

Local media outlets report that over 9,500 warehouse workers and 15,000 drivers participated. The demonstrators remarked that their claims have long been ignored. The workers also demand a "Covid allowance for operations in constant pandemic conditions."

"Strike in #Amazon (the whole supply chain): workers with Filt Cgil Toscana and Cisl-Uil at the Tuscan presidia of Calenzano (Florence) and Pisa. "Combining development and profit with the rights of those who work."

"If Amazon does not change its position, we will be forced to organize another strike," the general secretary of FIT-CISL Salvatore Pellecchia said. "Amazon has registered a huge increase in turnover and profits thanks to the pandemic, and now must talk with us to give its employee what they are waiting for," the union leader added.

Protests over similar demands occurred last year at  Amazon warehouses in the U.S. and Europe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company refuses to acknowledge the requests.

"The facts are that we put our employees and those of third-party suppliers first by offering them a safe, modern, and inclusive work environment, with competitive wages among the highest in the sector, benefits and excellent opportunities for professional growth," Amazon's manager in Italy Mariangela Marseglia said.

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