Amazon plans to transfer 800 workers affected by the closure of their Barcelona centre to distant locations. The company must continue dialogue with unions in good faith to find a fair solution.
Today, Amazon workers have started a 17-day strike to protest the closure of the logistics centre in Martorelles, Barcelona.
The closure will affect 800 workers who have been offered new roles at two new sites, much further away from their original place of work in Barcelona. Amazon cannot treat workers like pawns to be moved around a board as if they have no community, no family, no home and no ties to where they live. One of the sites is in Zaragoza, 62 km away, and the other is in El Far d’Empordà, around 121 km away in the province of Girona.
Compensation for the transfer is reported to range between 4650 and 5100 euros. Workers say this is far below the amount stipulated in the Catalan Transport Agreement which covers the soon-to-close Martorelles logistics hub. Spanish unions have asked for staff to be offered roles in other centres in the province of Barcelona, such as El Prat, Amazon’s largest warehouse in Spain. The 17-day duration of the strike coincides with the deadline for negotiating the closure of the Martorelles centre.
For the ETF, it is clear that to move forward, Amazon must continue negotiations with the unions of the 800 affected workers.
The picture used for this article was taken from a video clip shared by Spanish union FSC-CCOO.
