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Amazon accused of using ‘dirty tricks’ to bust union organising, forcing GMB to withdraw recognition bid
Members of the GMB union during a rally outside the Amazon fulfilment centre in Coventry as Amazon workers are staging their first ever strike in the UK in a dispute over pay. Picture date: Wednesday January 25, 2023
MEGA-RICH Amazon is using “dirty tricks” to bust union organising, GMB charged today after it was forced to withdraw a historic push to win recognition at the online retail giant’s Coventry warehouse.
During months of groundbreaking pay strikes, the general union’s membership at the site has skyrocketed from about 60 to more than 800 — well over half the 1,400 employees that Amazon said worked there last year.
But as GMB made an official application to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), which can force bosses to recognise unions if they represent more than 50 per cent of the workforce, the US-owned firm “flooded” the warehouse with 1,300 new staff, the union said.
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Morning Star editor Ben Chacko reports on an event detailing GMB's campaign to unionise the Coventry warehouse addressed by regional organiser FERDOUSARA UDDIN and Amazon worker LOUVEZA IQBAL