Motion of Support for Mass Rally Outside Amazon on 5 August

Goldsmiths ucu log

This motion was passed at a GUCU Branch meeting Wednesday, 5 July 2023

This branch notes:

  1. That Amazon made a profit of over £155m last year and its founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos is currently the third richest person in the world.
  2. That workers in Coventry have led the first Amazon strike in the UK following an imposed 50p pay increase last year and have just renewed their strike mandate for a further 6 months.
  3. That Amazon workers were represented at the How We Fight, How We Win Rank-and-File conference, which adopted this statement.

This branch believes:

  1. The company has used union-busting tactics from bullying and harassment to calling police on pickets to employing an extra 1,300 people in the warehouse to dilute union density and stop GMB gaining union recognition.
  2. That striking Amazon workers need maximum solidarity from across the labour movement in their fight.

This branch resolves:

  1. To support and build the mass rally outside the Amazon Coventry warehouse called by the strikers on 5 August, by:
    • adding our branch as a supporting organisation
    • sending a delegation from our branch
    • sharing on our email list and social media channels
    • working with other local trade union branches, trades councils and organisations to book a coach to Coventry on 5 August
  2. To make a donation of £200 towards the cost of the rally and the Amazon workers’ strike fund.