Roughly 2,000 Amazon workers in Germany went on strike Sunday night to protest low wages and poor working conditions at the e-commerce giant, according to Verdi, a German union. Strikes continued through Monday in the country, as well as in Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The protests coincide with Amazon Prime Day, the company’s biggest sales event. Some 100 workers at an Amazon fulfillment centre in Minnesota also walked off the job on Monday, protesting the company’s working conditions, benefits and corporate culture. (Reuters, Washington Post)

Talking point: In the lead-up to the two-day event and the anticipated labour strikes, Amazon announced several initiatives to improve employee satisfaction, and promised to add more full-time jobs. Last week, it committed US$700 million to retrain a third of its U.S. workforce. And, on Sunday, it said it will add 2,800 more permanent jobs to Germany’s 18,000-person workforce. The pledges have done little to stymie workers’ concerns: the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union accused Amazon of “throwing money at a problem it created.” The demonstrations underscore workers and Amazon’s reluctance to reach an agreement on issues like employment status and working conditions. In a private chat group, Amazon warehouse workers criticized the company for demanding faster shipping targets during Prime Day with no extra incentives. The company, meanwhile, said the strikes haven’t impacted its Prime Day sales.