Words by Matthew Allen
Amazon, which has since quite a while ago pulled in an investigation in the US overcharged poor working conditions and low pay in its satisfaction focuses, is confronting similar reactions in Europe. Worldwide work offices and laborers say the organization, in its push to extend universally, has cut expenses while additionally expanding shipping speeds, and this has corrupted working conditions. A week ago, strains between the organization and specialists finished in a laborer strike and challenge outside an Amazon office close to Madrid that started gently however finished with captures and wounds.
Two individuals were captured and accused of opposing expert amid the challenge last Tuesday, which was coordinated to agree with Prime Day, the organization’s yearly deals occasion. One dissenter required eight lines in his jaw after police hit him with a stick, as indicated by three sources who were available at the exhibition. Participants say police hit another dissident, who was not captured.
The Spanish National Police did not react to various solicitations for input from BuzzFeed News.
Around 950 laborers took an interest in the strike against Amazon in Spain, while around 120 individuals accumulated for a challenge outside an Amazon satisfaction focus close Madrid, as indicated by photojournalist Lito Lizana, who reported the occasion. The exhibition swelled into viciousness when, after police in revolt equip requested demonstrators to move far from the road, an officer pushed a minor who was available at the showing, as indicated by three participants who talked with BuzzFeed News.
Dissenters who were available at the time said the fight with police ejected after the minor member declined to hand over his ID. Video outside the office indicates three or four police capturing dissenters, hitting one man with a twirly doo, and kneeing another to the ground as they capture him. Miguel Palomeque’s capture by police.
The two men who were captured, 24-year-old Hugo Carrasco, who isn’t utilized by Amazon, and 30-year-old Amazon specialist Miguel Angel Alvarez Palomeque, were discharged that day and accused of protection from an expert, noncompliance to a specialist, and attack on expert, their lawyer, Victor Llanos, disclosed to BuzzFeed News
“The police played the role of trying to break the strike,” said Llanos. “There was no confrontation. The police began to provoke the demonstrators, beat them, and arrest them for no reason.”
Regarding the protesters’ arrests and injuries, Amazon said, “the safety of our teams is our number one priority and we greatly appreciate the efforts of the authorities to ensure everyone’s safety.”
Carrasco told BuzzFeed News that the two men obeyed the police officers’ orders and did nothing to provoke violence.
“The police do not have to intervene based on the fact a person is going to enter work or not, nor on how the picket line shows that there is a strike and tries to convince the person who tries to enter,” said Carrasco. “The constitutionally recognized right to strike was violated by the police.”
The specialists at the Madrid office additionally went on strike in March to challenge stale pay, the loss of debilitated leave advantages, and loss of pay for covering night and end of the week shifts. Some German and Polish Amazon specialists at other satisfaction fixate additionally went on strike a week ago on Prime Day.
“We are workers and we deserve what we are asking for, given the pressure of the work,” Palomeque told BuzzFeed News.
Hugo Carrasco being arrested by police.
An aggregate bartering understanding amongst Amazon and specialists spoke to by the Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions that qualified them for extra paid wiped out leave and increases in salary lapsed in 2016. From that point forward, compensation for Amazon representatives in Spain have been solidified, Douglas Harper, a delegate for the Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions, disclosed to BuzzFeed News. Alongside solidified wages, Harper said Amazon has cut time off advantages and altered pay scales in a route that, as per him, has made cuts among specialists with a similar position.
Harper, who has filled in as a specialized administration and support delegate at an Amazon plant situated in San Fernando de Henares for a long time, said that under the old work, Amazon likewise used to pay representatives for wiped out days beginning on the main outing. Be that as it may, now it sticks to legitimate essentials and just starts paying debilitated laborers after their third wiped out day. Under the new wiped out day strategy, Harper said individuals now and again go to work debilitated or with wounds.
“What is at risk is the health of the workers,” said Harper.
An Amazon worker, who was bruised by police batons at the protest and asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, told BuzzFeed News that she participated in the strike last week to “defend our rights.”
“They changed our collective agreement because they wanted to,” she said. “And each time, it’ll become worse.”
Amazon said it has brought over 2,000 jobs with “highly competitive pay, full benefits, and innovative training programs” to Spain since 2011. “Amazon is a fair and responsible employer,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We believe in continuous improvement across our network and maintain an open and direct dialogue with associates.”
Amazon has made a coordinated push universally finished the most recent two years, opening a few request satisfaction offices crosswise over Asia and Europe and propelling another application for worldwide customers in April. Its universal deals, which added up to $54.2 billion of every 2017, could not hope to compare to its $106.1 billion in deals in North America around the same time, as per its yearly report.
The San Fernando de Henares focus, where specialists satisfy orders for European clients, is Spain’s first and biggest satisfaction office. It utilizes around 1,100 individuals, including hundreds who are utilized by hiring organizations, as indicated by the Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions.
Spain has the second-most astounding joblessness rate in the European Union at 16.2%; that rate is significantly higher among individuals in the vicinity of 15-and 24-years of age — something close to 38%, as per the Organization for Economic Co-activity and Development.
In spite of the fact that no less than one noteworthy bank says Spain’s economy is enhancing, a significant part of the nation’s activity development has been in brief or here and now contract employment, says Marcel Jansen, a partner teacher at the Universidad Autonóma de Madrid.
“Besides this strong rise in short-duration contracts, we observe a strong drop in hiring wages, a substantial rise in part-time employment and unpaid overwork,” Jansen told BuzzFeed News. “The strike at Amazon is a reflection of the comparatively poor working conditions in Spain, but in the specific case of Amazon, I fear the company’s personnel policies are at the heart of the problem — long hours, high work pressure, combined with low wages.”
After examination from Spain’s Social Security and Work Inspection division in June, Amazon was required to change over 28 transitory work positions into stable situations at its San Fernando de Henares plant, as indicated by El Boletín, a fund news outlet situated in Spain. The review found the organization abused work strategies since over 25% of its work compel at the office were transitory laborers, as per El Boletín.
The Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions said the department’s findings of Amazon’s use of temporary labor were “just the beginning” of broader worker abuses at the facility.
An Amazon spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “It is our priority to always be fully compliant with labor law. As we keep on growing in Spain we will continue to create more full-time jobs and career development opportunities.” The spokesperson said, “conversions from temporary to full-time hires in our fulfillment center in Madrid have totaled to 354 in 2016, 291 in 2017, and 44 in 2018 so far.”
Amazon’s chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky told investors on a call in April that the company plans to expand more internationally. “We’ll continue to make these investments in Prime. We’ll continue to expand the selection, continue to build [Fulfillment by Amazon] programs so that it increases selection even more and builds great partnerships with sellers. We’ll continue to accelerate shipping. We’ll continue to lower prices.”
Harper, the union representative for Amazon workers in San Fernando de Henares, told BuzzFeed News that workers will continue to press Amazon for better working conditions and salaries.
“This is about recovering the rights that they made us lose and updating the situation to the current reality,” he said.
