Union ver.di: Is Amazon targeting the works councils?

There are conflicts with ver.di at several Amazon locations in Germany. The union suspects systematic disability. Amazon said it respects union rights.

There are currently works councils at three Amazon locations in Lower Saxony. At these three locations, Amazon is in a conflict with works councils organized by the union ver.di. In Wunstorf near Hanover, Samuel Onyekachi Atuegbu is suing his former employer. Atuegbu had worked at Amazon in Wunstorf since February 2021 and also co-founded the works council there last year. The ver.di member’s fixed-term contract was not extended in February of this year.

Atuegbu suspects that this has to do with his commitment to Ver.di and the works council. “Amazon thinks unionists are bad and dangerous people. Amazon doesn’t want anything to do with unions,” Atuegbu said in an interview with the NDR-Magazine Panorama 3. It wasn’t because of his work performance, he says. Atuegbu points to good feedback that he has received regularly. In addition, almost all of his colleagues would have received a contract extension at the same time.

Amazon denies that the end of the employment relationship has anything to do with his involvement in the works council, but does not want to comment officially on the specific case. In writing, Amazon informs that NDR with: “We clearly communicate the expectation to employees that fixed-term contracts have a regular end date and that we cannot predict whether they can be extended or converted.”

Similar cases at other sites

There are currently similar cases in Achim near Bremen and in Winsen (Luhe), south of Hamburg. In Winsen, Amazon is trying to part with Detlev Börs. Amazon accuses the chairman of the works council of working time fraud because he is said to have not worked on one day of a multi-day training course.

The works council committee had not approved the extraordinary termination, whereupon Amazon went to the labor court. Amazon was right at the beginning of April: Börs had violated his contractual obligations by not participating in parts of the training. Börs and ver.di announced immediately after the hearing that they would lodge a complaint against the decision. Until there is a final judgment, the works council chairman is still employed and active in the works council. Like Atuegbu in Wunstorf, Börs is an active ver.di member, as is Rainer Reising from the Amazon site in Achim near Bremen.

At the beginning of March, Amazon Reising resigned without notice. He was not given a reason for his resignation. Reising also suspects that the termination has something to do with his union activities. Until his dismissal, Reising was not only a member of the works council and ver.di, but also of “Amazon Workers International”, an independent international association of employees, and the “Make Amazon Pay” campaign, which campaigns for better working conditions worldwide Amazon and higher taxation of the group.

Heil supports the works council

What is striking about Reising’s resignation is the timing. Because shortly before, Reising had publicly campaigned for Atuegbu in Wunstorf. Together with works council colleagues from other locations, he visited the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, and the Federal Labor Minister, Hubertus Heil – also to support the colleague from Wunstorf.

Heil wrote a letter to Amazon in mid-February, urging them to reconsider the decision in the Atuegbus case. Heil emphasized in the letter that dem NDR that works council members are the backbone of democracy in the company. A solidarity photo was taken during the visit to Heil, on which Reising can be seen next to Heil. Two weeks later, Reising was dismissed without notice.

More union activity

Nonni Morisse from the ver.di union suspects a connection between the three cases. “For us, these are no longer isolated cases here. If we find such termination procedures at every location in Lower Saxony where we have organized, union-oriented works councils, then the system has it.”

Morisse, who looks after the Amazon locations in Lower Saxony and Bremen for ver.di, attributes the fact that there is an accumulation in Lower Saxony to increasing trade union commitment. In Winsen, ver.di has had a majority in the works council since the election in May 2022. There and at the Achim site, employees have gone on strike for the first time in recent months. In Wunstorf, a works council was set up for the first time at a distribution center.

Amazon: Appreciate cooperation with works councils

Amazon also does not want to comment on the specific cases in Achim and Winsen (Luhe). It says in writing: “Amazon is a fair and responsible company and encourages open dialogue among and with employees at all times. We appreciate the good cooperation with the works councils, which exist at numerous locations in Germany.”

The social scientist Sabrina Apicella has researched Amazon’s relationship with trade unions in Germany and Italy. These are not the first cases in which union activists at Amazon have spoken of patronage. “There are numerous international indications that Amazon is obstructing trade union work,” said Apicella in an interview with the NDR.

At the same time, works councils are widespread at Amazon locations in Germany. However, Apicella has observed that Amazon is more confrontational with unionized works councils than with non-unionized works councils.

“Put through layoffs”

This is also suggested by the statements of a former division manager who worked at an Amazon location in Germany until about a year ago. In an interview with Panorama 3 says the man, who would like to remain anonymous: “The subject of trade unions in particular was always viewed very critically. In department manager meetings, union works councils were named by name that we should keep an eye on. It was really about pushing through dismissals and warnings.”

Amazon rejects these allegations and emphasizes that it respects and upholds all applicable union rights. “For Amazon, the works councils are the most important operating partners,” writes Amazon, referring to more than 380 works council members at numerous locations in Germany. The topic will keep Amazon busy for a while, because a legal dispute is still ongoing in all three cases in Lower Saxony.