While shopaholics eagerly await Black Friday, with November 26 being maxi-discount day worldwide, Amazon deliveries could be at risk.
Couriers and employees of the companies associated with Assoespressi who work on behalf of the e-commerce giant, a total of 12 thousand workers, called for a general strike precisely for that date that could block the distribution of parcels.
This was announced by the national secretary of Filt CGIL, Michele De Rose, during the first unitary national assembly of executives and delegates of the Amazon contracted goods delivery sector, explaining that "the very participatory assembly gave full mandate to Filt CGIL, Fit CISL and Uiltrasporti to proclaim the strike ".
Among the reasons for the agitation "there is the request to lower workloads and rhythms, which have become unsustainable, and to reduce the weekly working hours of drivers", declared the director of Filt.
According to the picture outlined by the trade unions, deliverymen have to deliver up to 200 packages a day, with 130-140 stops to be made in 8-9 hours. An algorithm, which is updated pack after pack on the PDA supplied to the drivers, calculates the traffic conditions and indicates to the driver the fastest route, without providing for breaks.
The weekly working hours can reach 44 hours, an excessive number according to the workers' representatives, who would like them to be reduced at first to 42 and then definitively to 39.
Couriers also abstain from work to ask to "give continuity of employment to all staff, on the occasion of contract and contract changes. The liability on drivers in cases of damage and deductibles must be reduced and the economic value of the trip must be increased and introduced the performance bonus, "De Rose said again.
Thanks to the Covid-19 epidemic and travel restrictions, the 2020 edition of Black Friday was the most profitable ever for Amazon's worldwide sales partners, especially SMEs, who saw sales growth 60% compared to the previous year, with a turnover that exceeded 4.8 billion dollars.
(Unioneonline / F)
