Jeff Bezos World’s Richest Man, But Amazon Employees Ain’t Happy

Thousands of workers across Poland, Spain and Germany are on strike to demand better working conditions.

Workers in Spain are out on a three-day strike, while in Poland they are staging a work to rule.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos became the richest man in the world with a net wealth of $141.9 billion, the Forbes World's Billionaires list showed on Monday, 16 July.

Bezos' wealth grew more than $5 billion since 1 June to beat Bill Gates, the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation, who is the second-richest man in the world with $92.9 billion.

But all was not well on Twitter for Bezos, with many pointing out a more serious issue.

They vented their anger on the working conditions of the Amazon employees, despite the Seattle-headquartered company being the second-most valuable company in the world.

Strikes in Germany, Poland, Spain on #PrimeDay

Thousands of workers vowed to go on a one-day strike from Tuesday, 17 July at Amazon warehouses in Germany to demand better working conditions – joining colleagues in Spain and Poland in taking action against the world’s largest e-commerce company.

Germany’s Verdi services union called the strike to back its demand for labour contracts that guarantee healthy working conditions at Amazon’s fulfilment centers.

The one-day strike at six facilities in Germany coincides with Seattle-based Amazon’s Prime Day promotion.

Amazon said it expected only a fraction of its 12,000 workers in Germany to join the strike, and that there would be no impact on Prime Day deliveries.

Workers in Spain are out on a three-day strike, while in Poland they are staging a work to rule, Verdi services union said.

Amazon further said Amazon fulfilment center jobs offered competitive pay and comprehensive benefits from the first day of employment. Permanent staff earn $14.31 an hour or more after two years.

"We believe Amazon's fulfillment center jobs are excellent jobs providing a great place to learn skills to start and further develop a career," the company said in comments emailed to Reuters.

The workers found backing from US Senator Bernie Sanders who said they were “grossly underpaid”.

Germany is Amazon's second largest national market after the US. Net sales grew by 20 percent last year to $17 billion, accounting for 9.5 percent of the total, according to the company's annual report.

(With inputs from Reuters and IANS)