COVENTRY, England — Workers at the giant Amazon warehouse in this Midlands city narrowly failed to win union recognition by just 28 votes, getting 49.5%. “We see the outcome as a stepping stone toward Amazon recognizing the union,” Darren Westwood, one of the leaders of the effort to win recognition of the General, Municipal and Boilermakers union, told the Militant.
Union supporters have organized work stoppages, mass pickets and protests involving hundreds of workers. Their fight has won solidarity from GMB members and other unions around the country.
“Of course we are disappointed,” Westwood said. “But all can see the narrowness of the loss. Over two years we have increased the union membership from 60 members to 1,400.”
Organizing efforts began in 2022 when workers in Amazon warehouses all over the U.K. took action, some organizing sit-downs, others walked off the job. Westwood and others here started a campaign for 15 pounds ($19.15) an hour and recognition of the GMB. The union made T-shirts in the union’s color with “YES” printed on the back that workers wore on the pick-and-pack lines.
Ceferina Floresca described how she and other union leaders in the plant were able to address the workers at meetings set up by the Central Arbitration Committee, which organized the vote. “Our meetings were short and strictly timed, while the bosses pressed workers to attend hours of anti-union seminars. They brought in managers from other sites who talked to workers from different countries in their native language.”
During the seminars, the workers were told that they would get no pay raise this year and lose benefits if they voted for union recognition. QR codes were pasted around the warehouse for workers to use to cancel their union membership.
Garfield Hylton, another union leader in the plant, hosted a visit by a team of Militant correspondents July 30. He described how the union has an elected leadership in the warehouse and union reps are able to represent workers in disciplinary hearings. The union printed material and addressed meetings in different languages too. “We’ve also established international contacts,” Hylton said. He had just returned from a trip to meet union members in the U.S.
Westwood concluded, “We showed Amazon workers all over the world there is hope. It can be done.”