MADRID (Reuters) – Workers at Amazon’s (AMZN.O) distribution center outside Barcelona are on strike for two days indefinitely over the company’s warehouse closures and plans to relocate workers elsewhere. Protested in the eyes Thursday. state.
They set up a picket at the warehouse entrance, but union leaders said they were allowing truck drivers in and out of the 800-person center, prompting Amazon to call riot police to storm the warehouse area. and accused it of acting “maliciously”. first day.
Amazon declined to comment on the ongoing dispute.
On January 11, the delivery giant announced it would close a warehouse outside Martorres and move its operations to the city of Zaragoza, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) west of Barcelona.
Amazon said all its employees would be transferred to other distribution centers in Spain without losing their jobs, but unions described the move as a “disguised dismissal” and collective bargaining agreements in other provinces were limited to labor unions. said it would worsen wage conditions for workers.
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“Does Amazon really need to make more money? Millions more than the country as a whole,” Elisenda Mas, a spokesperson for Spain’s largest trade union CCOO, told Reuters. “embarrassing”
She said Amazon’s latest offer for employees wishing to relocate to Zaragoza or Figueras in the neighboring province of Girona, 125 kilometers north of Barcelona, offers a one-time relocation bonus of €3,000 ($3,280) and , in 12 months installments.
But another collective bargaining agreement in those provinces would entail a salary cut of at least 700 euros a month, she said, and leaving Barcelona, where her husband works and her children go to school, is not an option. He added that it was not a possible option.
Striking workers are asking to be relocated to other Amazon warehouses in the province of Barcelona.
Last month, Amazon announced more than 18,000 job cuts worldwide, amid similar moves by tech companies such as Meta (META.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O).
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Reported by David Latona. Edited by Andrei Khalip and Barbara Lewis
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