Amazon Workers At UK Warehouse On Strike

(RTTNews) - Hundreds of workers at an Amazon warehouse in UK, who belongs to the GMB trade union, are on strike seeking better pay and over working conditions.

The first-ever strike in the UK by Amazon workers is happening at the company's warehouse in Coventry, central England, which employs around 1,000 workers. Of these workers, around 300 are unionized.

In a tweet, the union said, "Hundreds of Amazon workers are striking today in Coventry. Over 98 percent of them backed strike action."

Amazon union workers earlier rejected a 50 pence per hour increase in pay, demanding an increase to £15 an hour. Criticizing the company's work culture, workers alleged that warehouse robots are treated better than them.

In December, GMB union workers at Amazon's Coventry fulfillment center had held a strike ballot after the pay raise offer, and 98 percent of them voted in favor of the walkout. In early January, the union announced a strike date of January 25, with a warning that further dates will be laid out in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, CNBC quoted an Amazon spokesperson as saying that the staff involved in the strike represent only a fraction of 1% of its UK employees.

Amazon's first facility in the U.S to form a union is the Staten Island warehouse.

In early January, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board or NLRB upheld the results of the union election at the Staten Island warehouse in New York, against objections by Amazon.

The company recently announced that it would eliminate 18,000 jobs, or about 6% of its workforce, majority of them in retail and recruiting divisions.