Challenging the divisive, racialised and anti-union model of exploitation at Amazon

Amazon use divide-and-rule tactics. They pitch worker against worker, with those who fall behind the pace facing disciplinary action; they plan for a high turnover of staff to prevent people from forming bonds of solidarity; they rely heavily on migrant workers who might not know their rights; and they deliberately structure the workforce along ethnic lines, setting up rivalries and conflict. They refuse to recognise unions. 

GMB have successfully challenged this divisive, racialised and anti-union model of exploitation. After years of patient organising, and last year’s unofficial sit-ins and walk-outs over pay, we have grown at Amazon Coventry to a point where 1000 people joined the strikes last month. 

We have done this by uniting a diverse group of workers. Amazon strikers themselves have translated communications into over a dozen languages.  We have created spaces for workers to develop and grow in confidence. We have run strike schools to plan tactics and work out the message, and our mass pickets have provided the perfect stage for workers to organise themselves. 

Our strike action has already forced two extra pay increases out of the company for every Amazon worker in the UK, and we plan more strikes in the run-up to Black Friday and Christmas. But the biggest gain is that we have united workers across divisions of race, nationality and religion and built what the workers themselves call a GMB union family.