GMB urges Co-operative to end Amazon locker partnership
General workers’ union GMB has launched a campaign to get Amazon lockers removed from 160 high street Co-operative stores.
Amazon delivers packages purchased online to the stores and consumers then collect their items from the lockers.
The union described the lockers as “a real cuckoo in the ethical nest” for the Co-operative Group. It has also contacted the group about its concerns regarding Amazon’s employment practices and has challenged the Co-operative’s reasons for the partnership.
In a statement the union said: “GMB has being warning the public that the high tech way Amazon process orders and tracks inventory disguises that it is also a traditional labour intensive mail order retail business.”
Martin Smith, GMB national officer, added: “The GMB needs the support of Co-operative members to ensure that Amazon improves security of employment, treats workers fairly and pays them a wage they can live on in their distribution chain in the UK and elsewhere in the EU.”
