One of the largest online retailers of the world, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), is being troubled by the strike of its German warehouse workers. The most crucial thing is the timing of this strike as the Christmas is drawing in with piling orders from customers. Verdi, Labor Union, is behind this strike and it is claiming the participation of up to 2,300 workers in the strike.
According to the recent update from Verdi, as many as five warehouse workers are already on strike and the sixth warehouse, out of nine, is likely to join them on Tuesday. Verdi started these protests last spring to force Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to increase the wages of its warehouse workers and to categorize them under retail industry instead of the current logistics. However, the retailer claims these workers to be under the logistics category and justifies their current wages accordingly.
Under the current demands, Verdi is demanding new wage agreements for as many as 10,000 permanent logistic workers of the retailer. Before this strike, as many as 800 workers left their jobs in Bad Hersfeld and Lepzig storage facilities. However, Amazon is not concerned with the layoffs or the current strike and spokesperson for Amazon said, “Only a minority of employees have taken part in strikes.” The retailer further added that there would not be any affect of these strikes over its delivery schedule.
Germany is the second-biggest market for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and it employs nearly 10,000 permanent workers throughout the country along with 10,000 seasonal workers. Amazon is likely to distribute the excess orders among its 28 warehouses throughout Europe. Last year, Amazon received as many as 4.6 million orders on December 15 and the company expects somewhat similar number of orders this year as well.
The shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are trading at $306.07 with 23% year-to-date decline in its share prices.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Allows Buyers to “Make an Offer” for Fine Art & Collectibles
Top 20 Medical Schools in the US – 2014 Rankings
4 Business Strategies that Turned Jamie Oliver into the World’s Richest Chef
