amazon doesn t recognise trade unions in the uk, so there is no sign of any negotiation happening between the union and the company about pay. but darren is undeterred. he feels it is his duty to stand up for the workforce. these people need someone who is not frightened, and i m not frightened. i m not frightened. why aren t you frightened? because i have been bullied before. and i will be bullied again. and i am still standing. i am old enough and stupid enough to know that if you get hit, you get back up again. even incy wincy spider got back up. so, yeah, i m in this for the long run. zoe conway, bbc news. in response, amazon has said that wages have gone up for its uk workers by 29% since 2018. it also says it offers and various employee
of the gmb union for a few months. if they want to join the union, there will be marquees set up over there. yet here they are, leading the first ever strike by amazon employees in the uk. we work for one of the richest men in the world, for one of the richest companies in one of the richest countries. and we shouldn t all be having to do 60 hoursjust to make ends meet. amazon says it ensures its wages are in line with or higher than similarjobs locally and that employees are also offered private medical insurance, life assurance, subsidised meals and an employee discount. it was in august last year that the political awakening at the coventry centre began. a spontaneous walk out, say workers here, in anger at being offered a 50p pay rise which took the minimum starting salary to £10.50 an hour. the company s profits had boomed during the pandemic and so, too, the bank account of billionaire amazon founderjeff bezos. we don t want his boats or his rockets.
three minutes to get to the toilet. heaven forbid you get there, all the cubicles are full. you suddenly find you ve got 10 12 minutes of doing nothing when you look for a toilet, and then, of course, you have got to use the toilet and come back. that could be 16, 18 minutes in that process. they will then question you, what were you doing? it sounds to me like you feel like you are being treated like robots. i wish we were treated like robots, because robots are treated better like us. they get a team of technicians when they break down. if a robot breaks down, they are fixed like that. if we are struggling. in a statement, amazon said.
we just want to be able to live. ijust want to be able to pay my bills at the end of the week. that is all we are asking for. it is not greed. people might think we are being greedy because we are saying £15 an hour. that s a negotiating start. we just want a decent wage. we are on our feet for ten hours a day. we get told off if we are caught leaning or sitting. amazon s warehouse in coventry is similar to this one in essex. it is a distribution centre where employees sort through products as they arrive from the company s suppliers. darren and garfield say their work is constantly monitored. they are expected to meet targets and the pressure is intense. so as soon as you come in the building, you are tracked. you then go onto your station where, as soon as you log on, they know exactly where you are in the building. they know how often you are scanning, because, obviously, that is tracked, as well. if you haven t scanned in at a certain time, they will come and speak to you. they bo