// Amazon workers in Coventry make a bid for formal union recognition
// If granted, it would be the first time a union in the UK has won the right to negotiate with the ecommerce giant
Amazon workers in Coventry are demanding formal union recognition after membership more than doubled during recent strike action.
If successful, it would be the first time workers at a UK Amazon site have won trade union recognition, says GMB Union.
Almost 700 workers at the ecommerce giant’s Coventry warehouse are now GMB members, a number the union believes is more than half of workers at the site – the usual threshold for mandatory union recognition in a workplace.
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Amazon bosses have 10 days to respond and agree voluntary recognition. If there is no agreement, GMB Union will start the statutory process through the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC).
Strikes by warehouse staff in Coventry kicked off back in January, with GMB members in the West Midlands calling for at least £15 an hour to help amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Last month Amazon implemented a pay rise of 50p an hour, taking its minimum pay for warehouse workers to £11; but the staff taking action are demanding £15 an hour – and have been frustrated at the company’s refusal to talk.
This would be the first-time workers at a UK Amazon site have won recognition of a trade union for collective bargaining over pay, terms and conditions.
GMB senior organiser Amanda Gearing said: “GMB members have been crystal clear since the start of their campaign; they will not accept a pay rise of pennies from one of the world’s wealthiest corporations.
“After weeks of campaigning and fourteen strike days, they’ve built the power of their union on site and are now in a position to file for recognition.
“Amazon top brass has refused to negotiate and now their own workers have forced them to the table.
“With industrial actions ballots under way in five further Amazon depots [1] and more and more Amazon workers joining GMB, managers fast risk this becoming a summer of strike chaos for the company.
“The time has come for Amazon to sit down and talk pay with GMB Union”.
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