Strike Friday at Amazon.it
Logistics workers in Italy are beginning to fight back against companies like Amazon and IKEA.

Employees work at the Amazon fulfillment center on December 3, 2015 in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain.Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty Images
Black Friday 2016 saw Amazon.it increase their orders by 1.1 million. But its executives had less to celebrate this Black Friday — workers at the Castel San Giovanni hub launched their first strike. The facility is Amazon’s largest in Italy, where the retail giant employs up to four thousand workers, less than half of whom have a permanent contract.
The strike — called by the three largest Italian unions, the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL), the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (CISL), and the Italian Labor Union (UIL) — saw about half the permanent workers and some precarious workers crossing arms. They demanded better working conditions, higher wages, and permanent contracts for all.
Logistics workers organized by the independent union Si-Cobas joined the strike and planned to picket the Amazon hub. “[W]e want to unify and strengthen workers’ struggles, making them effective through blockades,” a representative explained. These actions represent “the only proven useful tool to obtain bargaining power in the logistics sector.”