Amazon Workers Strike Over Pay In Germany, As Prime Day Kicks Off

Amazon (AMZN) employees demonstrated at seven company locations across Germany on Monday, as the company holds its two-day Prime Day sales event.

The disgruntled workers are demanding the e-commerce giant provide better pay and benefits and are urging the company to comply with a collective wage agreement. The strikes are being conducted under the motto: "No more discounts on our incomes."

"While Amazon fuels bargain hunting on Prime Day with hefty discounts, employees are being deprived of a living wage," said Orhan Arkan, a retail specialist in the Verdi workers union.

Amazon has said that it is a "responsible employer," despite the lack of a collective wage agreement, and said the strikes have had no effect on deliveries during the Prime Day event.

"In our fulfillment centers, our wages are at the upper end of what is paid at comparable jobs," an Amazon spokesperson said.

The protests come as Amazon is planning to expand in Germany and bring 2,000 permanent non-contract jobs to Europe's largest economy. The online retailer plans to soon open up a new warehouse in Moenchengladbach, located in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Workers are also protesting in the U.K., Poland and Spain.

Germany is Amazon's second-biggest market, after the United States. Amazon has also come under fire for its pay in the U.S., with congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., saying the company pays its workers "starvation wages." Amazon employees in Minnesota are striking on Monday and Tuesday.

Activists in Europe have also been concerned with the toll Amazon's logistics program takes on the environment and its policy of throwing away unsold goods. Demonstrators gathered at another Amazon warehouse in eastern Germany on Monday to protest its environmental practices and similar protests took place in France earlier this month.