On a traffic island on the outskirts of Coventry, armed with handmade signs and a stack of orange bucket hats, a small but vocal team of GMB union organisers are taking on Amazon.
More than 3,000 of Amazon’s employees – “associates” as they are called – had the chance to vote in a landmark ballot last week that could force the company to recognise a union for the first time in the UK. It is one of many fights for union recognition globally at the retail and cloud services group founded by Jeff Bezos in his garage in 1994 and now worth more than $2 trillion.
If the GMB wins, workers would have the right to sit at the table with Amazon bosses and negotiate over pay, hours and holidays, something that is anathema to the Seattle-based company, which is notoriously hostile to unions. The GMB believes recognition would also strengthen its position to address health and safety problems its representatives identify within the huge Coventry warehouse, known as BHX4. Workers there have recounted doing physically demanding work under the close watch of managers, who can issue them an “accommodation” – in effect, a disciplinary black mark – for any of a number of minor infractions.
With the new Labour government promising to strengthen the power of unions, the story of the GMB’s long campaign in BHX4 highlights the barriers they currently face.
Voting closed on Saturday after a month-long process, with the result expected on Monday. The workers have the support of local Labour MP Taiwo Owateme, who said: “I am so proud of all the Amazon BHX4 workers for the campaign they have carried out and how far they have come in their struggle.”
At the TUC conference in Brighton two years ago, Keir Starmer also praised what he called the GMB’s “fantastic campaign” urging Amazon to recognise the union.
Back on the access road to BHX4, it is 6pm and the enthusiastic GMB team are greeting workers arriving for the night shift, to the insistent beat of dhol drums, hired to create a carnival atmosphere.
Those who slow down are offered a free hat and urged to “vote yes.” Many honk or give a thumbs-up from their car window; others drive silently past to check in for work.
“Let’s change BHX4, let’s make history!” shouts GMB’s Rachel Fagan through a portable PA system they’ve placed in the middle of the road. “Let’s make the change we want to see – let’s make this place a better place to work!” shouts her colleague Stuart Richards.
At the separate entrance nearby, another couple of GMB activists have set up a table with refreshments, sweets and more bucket hats. As tired-looking staff leave the day shift and others enter ready to work all night, they too are asked if they have voted and urged to choose “yes”.
Some workers avoid the activists’ gaze and walk past them with a purposeful stride, but many stop to chat and grab a hat or a free drink. Several of those who talk to the activists Observer They say they have already voted for recognition or are planning to do so. “I voted for the GMB. We need some changes there,” says Edwin Ogbu.
Mark Foley, a newcomer, also voted in favor. “I feel like the people have more power.”
Anna, who does not reveal her last name, says: “I voted yes, because I think a change would be good for us.”
Earlier, in a stifling, windowless room at a nearby community centre, the same group of GMB activists, buoyed by coffee and cola, had phoned around in an attempt to persuade their 1,400 or so members on site to vote “yes”.
The vote was conducted under the scrutiny of an independent panel appointed by the government watchdog overseeing union recognition, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC).
For two weeks before the vote opened, small teams of GMB officials were allowed into the premises to hold a series of 45-minute meetings to argue for recognition, in a process meticulously negotiated with Amazon’s lawyers.
Amanda Gearing, GMB’s lead organiser in the Midlands, says they were constantly escorted while inside the building, including to the toilet, and that Amazon managers sat outside all their meetings and knocked on the door when the 45-minute slot was up. “They made it as difficult as possible for us,” she says.
An Amazon spokesperson said all visitors were constantly accompanied for health and safety reasons.
Workers have previously described what some consider anti-union tactics, including QR codes posted throughout the site that, when scanned by a staff member, automatically trigger an email to the GMB cancelling their membership.
Mathias Bolton, trade director for UNI Global Union, which campaigns for better working terms and conditions at Amazon around the world, says such union-busting tactics are familiar.
“The first thing to remember when dealing with Amazon, which is really not like most companies, is that all of these decisions[about workers]whether it’s in Coventry, India, Germany, or Bessemer, Alabama, are made in Seattle, at the highest levels,” he says. “It’s really part of an overall ideology about ‘how are we going to deal with workers?’”
He says the company sees itself as a “disruptor”, also in relation to labour legislation.
Bolton adds: “It’s not just traditional anti-unionism. It’s like going into a labour market and saying, ‘Why are there these laws? Why are there these regulations? Why is there this? Let’s do something new.’”
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In the United States, the result of the vote at the Bessemer warehouse has been mired in legal action for two years, while in Staten Island, New York, where staff voted in favour of recognition in April 2022, Amazon has repeatedly challenged the result and has yet to sit down to negotiate.
In fact, Amazon is so antipathetic to unions that it is taking legal action in the US to have the watchdog, the National Labor Relations Board, declared unconstitutional. (Amazon has been joined in these efforts by Elon Musk’s carmaker Tesla and retailer Trader Joe’s.)
In the Midlands, Gearing’s relationship with Amazon locally dates back about 12 years, before BHX4 opened, when she and her colleagues began receiving complaints about working conditions at another local plant, in Rugeley. Since then, the union has been steadily recruiting members.
In Coventry, the union campaign gained momentum in the summer of 2022, when workers expecting a generous pay rise in recognition of their efforts during the pandemic were told they would receive an extra 50p an hour. Furious staff staged a wildcat walkout and a small protest in Coventry city centre.
This ultimately led to the first industrial action at an Amazon facility in the UK, which began with a midnight strike in January last year and has continued with a series of strike days since then.
The GMB’s current application for formal recognition is a second attempt, after it withdrew an initial application last year.
At the time, the union accused Amazon of deliberately hiring more than 1,000 additional employees in an attempt to distort the decision. Amazon insists they were recruited in the normal course of business.
After another concerted membership drive, Coventry workers submitted a second application, which resulted in the CAC granting them the right to hold the legally binding vote. To win, a majority of voters must choose “yes,” and these “yes” voters must constitute at least 40% of the bargaining unit.
Author James Bloodworth worked at Rugeley’s warehouse while researching his 2018 book. Hiredabout low-paid UK workers, reporting that at the time, toilet breaks were monitored and taking too many sick days could lead to disciplinary action. “It’s surprising how hostile Amazon is to unionisation,” he says. “What are they trying to hide there? Or what do they not want to be discovered?”
He suggests that Amazon resists any challenge to its management culture, which includes what he calls an obsession with productivity. “It’s really hard to meet these productivity targets, which is the biggest complaint I heard while working there and have heard since.”
Like all unions, the GMB is waiting to see what practical difference Labour’s “new deal for workers” will make.
The party has promised to facilitate recognition and The document published by the Labour Party on the new agreement During the election campaign he said: “Stronger unions and collective bargaining will be key to addressing the problems of insecurity, inequality, discrimination, poor law enforcement and low wages.”
Kate Bell, deputy general secretary of the TUC, said: “Even if the current barriers to union recognition are not overcome this time, we will continue to fight until all Amazon workers in the UK have decent pay and conditions.” She added that with the new deal about to be introduced, “the tide is turning against bad employers.”
It is unclear how far the new government is prepared to go to get tough on corporate giants like Amazon. But for now, despite the odds, the small group of GMB activists in Coventry are hopeful that they can make history. “I’m pretty optimistic about it,” says Gearing. “Our prediction is that we will win.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Our employees have the option to join or not join a union. They always have. We regularly review our wages to ensure we offer competitive wages and benefits.
“We also value direct interaction with our employees at Amazon. It’s an essential part of our work culture. We value that direct relationship and our employees value it too.”