Faced with a financial squeeze from every side, Amazon worker Chris*, from Doncaster, England, recently had to go onto a debt management plan. His child maintenance payments alone have gone up £137 a month to cover spiraling prices elsewhere. “The cost of living is absolutely ridiculous,” he says. “My power bill and my gas bill have more than doubled. The cost of everything is going up, but my wages haven’t risen very much.”

Chris is explaining why he joined hundreds of his colleagues in a recent wave of wildcat strikes. Unofficial action began on Thursday, August 4, at the Amazon site in Tilbury over a proposed 35 pence pay raise, which Chris describes as “insulting” and “inadequate.” Then the strikes spread, with workers at a number of sites including Bristol, Coventry, Doncaster, Rugby, and Rugeley staging sit-ins in canteens in protest at the measly offer made.

“It’s just disgusting and disgraceful,” says Sarah*, another worker who has taken part in the walkouts at the Amazon site in Bristol. “It goes to show the contempt they have for us. We’ve been driven to take action by desperation. People are worried about how they will be able to provide for their families.”