German union strikes Amazon for better pay

photo Amazon employees gather in front of an Amazon building Monday during a strike in Graben, southern Germany. Workers at four of Amazon.com's German distribution centers have started a two-day strike in a long-running dispute over wages.

BERLIN - Workers at four of Amazon.com's German distribution centers have started a two-day strike in a long-running dispute over wages.

The ver.di union said Monday that workers at the American online retailer's logistics centers in Leipzig, Bad Hersfeld, Graben and Rheinberg will stay off the job until this evening.

Amazon said the number of employees taking part in the strike during the first shift was not significant enough to prevent the company from making its deliveries on time.

"Less than 600 employees of the early shift have followed the call to strike action," Anette Nachbar, a spokeswoman for Amazon in Germany, said in an email. "Therefore the strike will not impede on the compliance with Amazon's delivery promise."

Amazon employs some 9,000 people in total at nine locations in Germany, the company's second biggest market.

For more than a year now, the union has been pushing for higher pay, arguing that Amazon workers receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs.

Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees already earn wages on the upper end of that industry. Amazon has agreed to pay Christmas bonuses to workers but ver.di says that's still not enough.

The internet retailer said it pays its staff 9.55 euros ($12.26) per hour, on the upper end of the pay scale in the logistics sector, and gives workers benefits including holiday pay and bonuses.

In Chattanooga, Integrity Staffing is advertising warehouse jobs at Amazon's fulfilment center with pay rates at $10.50 to $11.50 per hour.

The Verdi union organized strikes around Christmas 2013 and in April this year over the same issue. At its warehouse in Graben, Germany, the company has offered a pay rise of between 2.1 percent and 3 percent.

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