// Amazon warehouse workers in Coventry retract formal union recognition request
// The GMB has accused the tech giant of playing “dirty tricks” and drafting in more than 1,000 extra workers to thwart the decision
Amazon workers in Coventry have withdrawn the bid for formal union recognition and have accused the tech giant of playing “dirty tricks”.
Last month, warehouse employees made a formal request to the independent central arbitration committee (CAC) following a series of strikes in a dispute over pay.
If successful, it would have marked the first time workers at a UK Amazon site have won trade union recognition.
GMB membership jumped to 800, which it believed represented more than half of the warehouse staff – the usual threshold for statutory union recognition in a workplace.
However, once the union had made an official application to the CAC, Amazon claimed it had 2,700 workers.
It accused the tech giant of “flooding” the warehouse with up to 1,000 new employees since the strike action began.
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GMB senior organiser Stuart Richards: “GMB believes this was purely in response to GMB membership growing so close to the threshold for statutory union recognition.
“GMB has expressed serious concerns to the CAC both about the accuracy of the information Amazon has given to the committee – and what we believe are immoral anti-union tactics.
“While we have no alternative but to withdraw the application for statutory recognition, but we’re not going away.
“GMB members at Amazon are not giving up the fight for a wage they can live off and they won’t give up the fight for union recognition.”
Amazon implemented a pay rise of 50p an hour in March, taking its minimum pay for warehouse workers to £11, which was dismissed by striking employees as “insulting”.
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.
Further strike action at the Coventry warehouse will take place on 12, 13 and 14 June.
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