As Amazon and the European Parliament disagree over who should represent the US company at a parliamentary committee on 26 June, European trade union UNI Europa urges Amazon to send an executive from its S-team with responsibility for working conditions in its warehouses.
Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa, commented: “We object to Amazon’s repeated proposal to have non-executive staff attend the proposed hearing before the EMPL committee in the European Parliament. European Amazon employees are subject to adverse practices and policies. These include resistance to productive engagement with trade unions, surveillance and algorithmic management, and the recent return to office mandate. These decisions are not made in Luxembourg. They are made at the highest echelons of Amazon’s management structure: the S-Team. We demand that Amazon make available S-Team members to be held accountable by the Committee.”
As Euronews reported, the EMPL committee had asked London-based Senior Vice President Russell Grandinetti, a member of Amazon’s highest management structure, the S-team, to appear before it. Amazon responded that two other senior officials – Luxembourg-based Stefano Perego, vice president of international operations and global operations services, and Lucy Cronin, a Dublin-based vice president for EU public policy – would be better placed to answer the committee’s questions on working conditions. However, the Committee rejected these speakers as “they don’t meet the required level of seniority”.
The hearing will see testimonies from Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa, Monika Di Silvestre, trade union secretary of UNI Europa affiliate ver.di and Magda Malinowska, warehouse worker of Amazon Poland, member of Workers’ Initiative trade union.
Silke Zimmer, member of UNI Europa affiliate ver.di’s Federal Executive Board, said: “Amazon doesn’t ensure good and safe work – and it refuses to recognise workers’ will to collectively bargain in Germany. This stands in stark contrast to our fundamental democratic values and social model. We are glad to see that the Parliament is taking active steps to hold Amazon accountable.”
Since the ban of its lobbyists from the European Parliament over 15 months ago, Amazon has further increased its lobby spending to a record level of 7 million euros, making it the second largest EU lobby spender (tied with Microsoft and Apple). According to research by Corporate Europe Observatory, the company has had at least 69 meetings with MEPs despite the lobby ban. (These numbers are based on self-reporting by MEPs; in reality, the number is likely much higher.)
The hearing will be livestreamed here.
Background
In February 2024, over 30 trade unions and civil society organisations, including UNI Europa, Corporate Europe Observatory, the ETUC, LobbyControl and SOMO, sent a joint letter to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in support of the removal of Amazon’s access badges. The badges were eventually withdrawn – until Amazon lobbyists would attend a future hearing at the European Parliament and host a parliamentary delegation at Amazon warehouses.
Amazon’s track record, marred by allegations of exploitative labour practices, antitrust violations, tax dodging and environmental negligence, has drawn sharp criticism from trade unions and advocacy groups worldwide. The mounting pressure on Amazon has coalesced in the Make Amazon Pay campaign, which has mobilised strikes and protests every year for the past five years on Black Friday, 28 November 2025.
In January 2023, the first international study of Amazon workers in major markets found that Amazon’s performance monitoring system makes workers feel “stressed, pressured, anxious, like a slave, robot and untrusted”. Over half of Amazon workers surveyed say Amazon’s monitoring systems have had a negative impact on their health (51%) and their mental health (57%). In response, in May 2024, over 20 leaders of major trade unions across Europe, representing over eight million workers, called on European data protection authorities to ramp up oversight over Amazon’s abusive – potentially illegal – data surveillance practices.
For more information, please contact Daniel Kopp, Director of Communications at UNI Europa: daniel.kopp@uniglobalunion.org