Free snacks, fresh decor and welcome signs in some of the 26 languages spoken on site have made a sudden appearance at one of Amazon’s vast UK warehouses in recent weeks.
There has even been downtime on offer for workers usually expected to keep up a relentless pace — so long as they sit through meetings where managers explain why they should not want a union to bargain for them.
“There is so much misinformation,” complains Louveza Iqbal, a representative of the GMB union, which has been building its membership among employees of the ecommerce giant for more than a decade. It has finally won the right to hold a ballot that could force Amazon to recognise the union in the UK and negotiate with it on pay, hours and working conditions.
Amazon’s charm offensive is the tech giant’s latest tactic in a long-running global battle to prevent its employees from organising after fending off most similar attempts in its US home market.
But Iqbal, an employee at the warehouse on the outskirts of the Midlands town of Coventry since 2020, argues that a workforce composed largely of recent migrants has every interest in the union winning recognition.
“A lot of people who work here don’t have the privilege to get a different job,” she said. “They work 60-hour weeks on empty stomachs to send money home. If the vote goes through, people will have more protection . . . they will be treated more with respect and given what they deserve.”
She was speaking over music and a cacophony of car horns as the GMB urged workers coming off their shift — many rushing to a second job as an Uber driver — to vote before the ballot closes on Saturday.
Results are expected on Monday and no one is sure which way the vote will go, but if the ballot passes, it could prove a pivotal moment.
Gaining a foothold at companies such as Amazon is crucial to the future of the trade union movement, whose membership has suffered long-term decline as the nature of work changes from jobs for life with big, blue-collar employers to more precarious work in a fragmented services sector.
If the ballot passes, it will be the first time a union has won the right to bargain directly with Amazon in its European operations. The company has so far given workers a seat at the table only in countries such as France or Italy, where it is obliged to do so by law or ministerial diktat.
In the US, the company is still fighting legal challenges to a 2022 vote by workers at its Staten Island warehouse in New York City who became the first Amazon employees in the US to win union representation. Similar bids at other Amazon sites in the US have since failed.
But UK unions are riding high on the back of Labour’s election victory, which they hope will give them new influence and stronger rights to enter workplaces and represent workers.
“There is a change in the weather in this country,” said Gary Smith, the GMB’s general secretary, at a rally outside Amazon’s London headquarters this week. “There is a change in government and Amazon is going to be compelled to change with it.”
Labour has promised to repeal anti-strike laws passed by the previous government, allow trade unions to run ballots electronically and lower the thresholds for unions to win statutory recognition.
It has also said it will impose a new duty on employers to tell their staff about their right to join a union and set out clear rules allowing union officials to meet, recruit and organise within workplaces.
These changes could make a big difference to the kind of campaign the GMB has been waging under rules that currently require it to win support from 40 per cent of workers on a turnout of 50 per cent.
Amazon acknowledges employees are free to join a union but says the company puts “enormous value” on direct engagement with employees.
“We always work hard to listen, take on feedback, make continuous improvements and invest heavily to offer great pay, benefits and skills development in a safe and inclusive workplace with excellent career opportunities,” a spokesperson said.
Managers have made every effort to persuade workers in Coventry that this “direct relationship” is in their interests, arguing that a union would collect hefty subscriptions from members but have no power in practice and that lengthy disputes could simply delay pay awards.
Tom Vickers, an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University who was seconded to the GMB to document their campaign, said Amazon had used questionable tactics to drive this message home.
Having for years refused to translate contracts and policies, the company is now displaying anti-union messaging around the building in many languages, Vickers said. It has drafted in a senior Eritrean manager from London to appeal to the large group of workers in Coventry of the same nationality. Other managers are pulling known union leaders and other workers aside for informal one-on-one discussions.
Amazon said it wanted employees to have “a full understanding of what union recognition would mean” so that they could make an informed decision.
The company strongly denied rumours that it would help workers who vote against union recognition by sponsoring their visa, or penalise those who vote for the union with a disciplinary clampdown.
The biggest obstacle the GMB faces is that Amazon’s entire operation encourages workers to compete rather than collaborate.
Following a recruitment drive last year that the GMB suspects was designed to dilute union membership, a charge Amazon denies, the site is so crowded that employees sometimes struggle to find a workstation and come under pressure to take “voluntary” time off, Vickers said.
Those who record too much “idle time” or repeatedly work below the average rate of productivity are at risk of disciplinary action.
But Garfield Hylton, a GMB branch secretary who has worked at the site since 2018, said it was impossible to work out how Amazon’s algorithms calculated productivity. In his role, luck plays a big part, as some boxes coming down the conveyor belt simply take longer to unpack and check than others.
The result, Hylton said, is an early-morning scramble to secure the best workstations so as to “cherry pick” the most promising boxes.
“The Olympics take place in here,” he said. “It’s so competitive.”
In the past few weeks, there has been a noticeable drop-off in disciplinary action, GMB officials said. But they fear managers will swiftly pile on the pressure again if their bid for recognition fails.
“It’s really high stakes,” Vickers said, noting that under current rules, the GMB cannot revive its recognition bid for three years if it fails. “I’m really concerned over the consequences for workers who stick their necks out.”