Workers at Amazon.com's German operations on Monday (December 16) vowed to continue a strike over pay in the middle of the crucial Christmas holiday season, in a dispute over pay that has been raging for months.

Verdi union said workers went on strike in Amazon's logistic centres in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig.

A delegation of German workers will also protest at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, helped by U.S. workers unions.

On Tuesday, workers in Amazon's centre in the German town of Werne will protest, Verdi said.

"We demand from Amazon that they sign a labour agreement with us based on the regulations of the retail industry," said union representative Heiner Reimann.

"This would mean that Amazon employees starting new in the company would earn about 7,000 euros more per year. We also demand humane working conditions and salaries which allow for decent living conditions," Reimann added.

The German union has organised short strikes this year to try to force Amazon to accept collective bargaining agreements in the mail order and retail industry as benchmarks for workers' pay at Amazon's German distribution centres.

However, Amazon has maintained that it regards staff at its centres in the cities of Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig as logistics workers and that they receive above-average pay by the standards of that industry.

Amazon employs around 9,000 people in Germany and Verdi earlier this year had warned it was ready to call a strike during the busy days before Christmas, when it would hurt the online retail company the most.

Presented by Adam Justice

Read more: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/amazon-workers-staff-strike-germany-seattle-530467