Amazon plans to hire as many as 200,000 extra logistics workers in the United States. With extra manpower, it hopes to get all orders out the door in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. In Germany, warehouse workers are actually using this busy period to protest against working conditions at Amazon.
According to US News, Amazon plans to hire twice as many workers during this peak period as in 2018. That shouldn't be a problem for the e-tail giant; in September, Amazon organised an event to attract potential employees. The company sought staff for 30,000 vacancies and said it received 200,000 applications.
Amazon Germany strikes
In Germany, group employees traditionally went on strike during the peak period. On Black Friday, one of the busiest days of the year for Amazon, warehouse workers in six German distribution centres laid off work. Trade union Verdi believes that working conditions at Amazon leave much to be desired and demands that Amazon join the collective agreement for the German retail sector.
The union has been organising protests at Amazon's German distribution centres since 2013. The e-tailer has so far shown itself quite indifferent to the strikes. Again this year, Amazon let it be known that it still has enough staff to process orders. The e-tailer managed to limit the impact of the strikes in recent years by moving to fulfilment centres in neighbouring countries, such as Poland.
Afbeelding: Lukassek / Shutterstock.com
