Too Many Drops For Amazon Drivers?
Amazon drivers, is your work increasing but the pay staying the same? Are you being made to do more and more drops each shift, with little or nothing in return?
We’ve been told that drivers are now doing 300+ drops and up to 150 stops each shift – a lot more than before lockdown. Some agencies have been paying workers an extra £2 per hour, like the warehouse staff. Amazon says this is to cover the extra risk of the pandemic. What they really mean is they have to pay that much more so that workers keep working. Otherwise people might say it’s not worth it and stay at home. But £2 extra isn’t a lot, and it doesn’t cover the increase in workload. Drivers have also told us about specific problems with agencies, like being charged for damage to vans. Is this a problem in Croydon? Get in touch with us to speak about this and to see how we might be able to help.
What makes things worse is that the warehouse staff have now lost the £2 bonus. Amazon says the pandemic is over. But people are still dying and drivers are still taking risks every day to deliver the parcels. Amazon can easily afford to pay more, or to hire more drivers so the drops are shared. The company has been making billions thanks to the lockdown. In the first three months of 2020, Amazon has reported a revenue of £56billion, up 26% on the same time in 2019. And Jeff Bezos, the owner, has added £27billion to his personal wealth. They can afford it. But they will only pay more if workers make it more expensive for them not to.
But it’s not just a story of powerful Amazon and powerless workers. Around the world, Amazon staff have been taking action during the crisis to fight for their safety and conditions. In the US, there have been strikes in multiple cities. In Italy there was an 11-day strike by workers, who forced Amazon to improve their safety measures. In France, unions also won some improvements from the company. And workers from Poland, Germany, Spain, Slovakia, France and the US have set up an international organisation to fight for change, called Amazon Workers International. Check amworkers.wordpress.com
As demand for online shopping goes up, more and more workers will end up delivering products and more money will be invested in this type of work. This means that now is the time for workers to come together and fight for better pay, conditions and safety. We are in touch with Amazon workers across the UK and internationally. We can help you to coordinate with them, and we can support you organising at work. For example, we can provide organising advice, employment law advice, leaflets, translations, contacts with the media and social media (Twitter/Facebook etc) support. We can also visit Amazon to speak with workers, and if necessary, to speak with the managers.
Who are we?
We are Croydon Solidarity Network, a group of workers in South London who are organising in the warehouses and factories in the area. We believe in helping each other in solidarity, because together we are stronger.
Email: croydonsolidarity@gmail.com Call/Text: 07951421335 Facebook: search ‘Croydon-Solidarity-Network’ Twitter: @NetworkCroydon
