Historic agreement for Amazon workers is the result of  struggle and trade union organization

“Trade union activity in Amazon Italia began in 2016 in a parking lot in the Milan area where Filt of Milan and Lombardy met the first group of contracted drivers who were operating in the first Amazon sites in Milan and Varese.”

On the 15^th of September, the first historic national agreement with the Seattle giant, Amazon, was signed at the Italian Ministry of Labor. The agreement, signed with Filt Cgil^[1], Fit Cisl^[2] and Uilt^[3] together with the allied representatives of temporary workers, represents a first concrete result for thousands of Italian workers, as well as a decisive step for the national and international trade union movement. 

For the first time, Amazon agreed to enter into trade union bargaining according to the contractual disciplines in force. Amazon has signed an agreement in which collective representation, the role of the trade union and the national collective agreement for Logistics and Freight have been agreed to. The agreement recognizes the subjects of bargaining at a national and regional level and further the pact makes concrete commitments towards the general improvement of workers’ conditions. 

We have reached this milestone through a long and difficult negotiation process, thanks to the determination and struggle of the workers who on March 22 gave life to a first historic national strike that involved direct and contract employees. In some areas of the country with the highest union membership the participation peaked at over 90%. However it is an oversimplification to say that this result is solely because of the national mobilization of March 22. 

Breaking the “glass bubble”

Trade union activity in Amazon Italia began in 2016 in a parking lot in the Milan area where Filt of Milan and Lombardy met the first group of contracted drivers who were operating in the first Amazon sites in Milan and Varese. Since that first meeting our activity has never stopped and was characterized in subsequent years by the constant presence of the union and of the union delegates of the CGIL in the warehouses and in the parking lots. We organized the workers and commenced a battle that resulted in several territorial strikes that involved the procurement chain and led to a gradual improvement in working conditions and wages. In five years we have regulated the work of couriers, moving from the most disparate and often pirated contractual applications to the full application of the Ccnl Logistica^[4] and to improvements on top of the same national contract, which have led to an increase in wages of several hundred euros. In the context of this national organzing, Amazon has grown dramatically in our country, the number of direct and contract workers has increased tenfold and dozens of new delivery stations have sprung up throughout the country. 

We have always encountered great difficulty in meeting up with and organizing the direct employees of the e-commerce giant. They are too often harnessed to an apparently “golden” personnel management system that masks a model of the disintegration of collective representation. This personnel system attempts to replace everything that is traditionally the role of the trade union and its national representatives.

The September 15 agreement breaks the “glass bubble” in which Amazon had imprisoned its employees and makes it clear and evident to all workers the importance of organizing to improve their conditions. Following the framework agreement on industrial relations, the first concrete results of this new chapter in he  trade union movement at Amazon were seen. 

In fact, on the 23^rd of September, a second agreement was signed with Conftrasporto, a trade association to which Amazon adheres.  This agreeemnt gives life to the national protocol in which the need for important wage increases is identified for all workers, employees and contractors, of the multinational in Italy. The agreement, ratified territorially by the RSA^[5] of the Filt CGIL, provides for a salary increase of 8% in the CCNL, defines a progressive plan of permanent employment for more than a thousand workers and initiates local negotiations for the organization of work in warehouses. In a sector like e-Commerce, which is experiencing exponential growth and aims at deregulation and maximum precariousness and flexibility, too often enticing local and political institutions with the promise of new employment, the union represents the only real barrier. to a system that would otherwise lead to unacceptable steps backwards with respect to the standards of the workers’ movement in Italia and in the world.

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This article originally appeared, in Italian, in the October 11 edition of “Sinistra Sindacale”

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^[1] Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Trasporti – Italian Transport Workers Federation of the CGIL – the General Federation of Italian Workers – the largest trade union federation in Italy with over 5 million members

^[2] Federazione Italiana Trasporti (Fit)– Transport division of the CISL – Confederazione Italiana Sindicati Lavoratori – 2^ndlargest Italian confederation with over 4 million memebrs

^[3] Unione Italiana dei Lavoratori dei Trasporti (Uilt) part of the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL)– the third national trade union federation with over 2 million members

^[4] Contratto Collectivo nazionale di Lavoro (Ccnl) for Logistics is the basic agreement covering all applicable logistics firms in Italy.

^[5] Rappresentanza Sindacale Aziendale (RSA) – A company specific organization of workers who are members of a particular union federation , in this case the Filt CGIL.