Workers at the German warehouses of online retailer Amazon.de are on strike in Rheinberg, Germany.European Pressphoto Agency
FRANKFURT—Workers at five German Amazon.com Inc. logistics centers have walked out in a two-day strike to support demands for a collective wage agreement, the Verdi labor union said.
The walkout started at 2200 GMT Sunday with the night shift at the two distribution centers in Bad Hersfeld, in Germany's Hesse state. At 0400 GMT, workers in three other German Amazon logistics centers in Leipzig in Saxony, Graben in Bavaria and Rheinberg in North Rhine-Westphalia, had also joined the walkout. The strike is expected to end after the late shift at 2200 GMT Tuesday, Verdi said.

The dispute centers around a wage deal for Amazon's workers in Germany. The labor union wants Amazon to offer its workers in Germany a collective wage agreement in line with compensation in the German retail and logistics sector, rather than using its own pay policies. Verdi accused Amazon of paying employees several hundreds of euros less a month than they are entitled to earn, based on the current German retail wage agreement.Five out of the nine Amazon logistics centers have now joined the strike, Verdi said.
In Graben, Bavaria, Amazon has recently offered pay increases of between 2.1% and 3%, the labor union said.
"We will, however, not accept that the company arbitrarily dictates salaries. Only a collective wage agreement guarantees workers salaries and working conditions that secure their livelihood," said Verdi board member Stefanie Nutzenberger. The labor union also criticized the high portion of temporary contracts, extreme work pressure, and a lack of regulation for breaks.
Amazon wasn't immediately available to comment on the industrial action. The company employs some 9,000 permanent workers in Germany, with about 14,000 on temporary contracts.
Last year, several hundred Amazon workers in Germany walked out during the Christmas the sales period. Amazon staff staged several temporary walkouts earlier this year.