Amazon asked Spanish police to intervene in warehouse strike

An
Amazon protester in Madrid, Spain.

CCOO
de Madrid

• Amazon asked police in Spain to intervene in a mass
  strike on Friday by enforcing worker productivity inside a
  Madrid warehouse, according to local reports.
• Thousands of Amazon workers across Europe went on
  strike on Black Friday in protest at working conditions at
  warehouses.
• Spanish police were “dumbfounded” by Amazon’s request,
  which they categorically rejected, according to
  El Confidencial.
• Amazon denied the allegation, calling the reports
  “ludicrous suggestions.”

Amazon asked police in Spain to intervene in a mass strike at a
warehouse on the outskirts of Madrid, according to local reports.

Amazon wanted a police presence at the warehouse to ensure that
productivity remained high within the fulfilment center, while
workers staged their protest outside, according to Spanish
newspaper
El Confidencial.

A source at Spanish union CCOO, which helped coordinate the
strikes, told Business Insider that Amazon “wanted to send the
police inside the warehouse to push people to work.”

Amazon strongly denied the claims and called it “the worst kind
of misinformation.”

The dispute erupted as
thousands of Amazon workers across Europe staged strikes on
Black Friday in protest at warehouse working conditions. Some
1,600 staff walked out in Spain.

Read more:

‘We are not robots’: Thousands of Amazon workers across Europe
are striking on Black Friday over warehouse working
conditions

Spanish newspaper
El Confidencial reported that Amazon met with police
officials after the strike was announced. It wanted local
officers “to force employees to go to their respective jobs and
ensure their performance was identical to that of a normal
working day.”

Amazon’s request “dumbfounded” police, according to El
Confidencial. “The request was categorically rejected by the
police, who maintained that controlling labour productivity
doesn’t fall within its powers,” a police source said.

Law enforcement officials reportedly emphasised to Amazon that
Spanish law protects workers’ right to strike. They told the
company that police would be present at the strike but would
limit themselves to keeping the peace.

Police
presence at an Amazon warehouse on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain
on Black Friday 2018.
AP

Amazon denied that it had asked police to intervene in the
strike. A spokeswoman told Business Insider:

“Amazon is a responsible business that puts its customers and
associates first. We always work with public authorities,
including the police, to ensure the safety of our people and our
operations.

“However any suggestion that we have used this relationship in an
improper way is categorically wrong. Anyone who understands the
way businesses and local authorities work will know that these
ludicrous suggestions are the worst kind of misinformation.”

Madrid police were unavailable for comment.

This is not the first time Amazon has asked police to intervene
in Amazon warehouse protests in Spain, El Confidencial notes.
When workers went on strike on Prime Day in July, it said Amazon
asked police to guarantee access to workers crossing the picket
line and to trucks carrying merchandise. The strikes in July

resulted in clashes with police, including some arrests.