Clare Birkett reports from a protest outside Amazon HQ in London in solidarity with warehouse workers around the country taking unofficial strike action

NEU, Unite, Unison and Labour Party activists held a lively and exciting protest outside Amazon’s London Headquarters on Wednesday in support of Amazon warehouse wildcat strikers. A sea of flags and banners stood against the stale, grey skyscrapers of the city centre, and many buses passing honked in solidarity.

It was a fitting scene for a protest highlighting the gap between bosses in their glass towers and workers in factories stuck in poverty wages. The crowd chanted ‘What’s disgusting? Union busting!’ and ‘What’s outrageous? Poverty in wages!’

Following meagre 35p-50p per hour pay offers by Amazon, videos have been shared on social media showing warehouse workers in Tilbury, Bristol, Coventry and elsewhere downing tools, holding sit-ins and protesting to demand a proper pay rise.

Amazon head office workers cautiously took leaflets about the strikes as they entered and left the building on their lunch break. Many seemed unaware of the plight of the strikers, and others seemed very pleased to see so much support for their warehouse-based colleagues.

Near the end we marched with banners, flags, whistles and loud horns, through a line of security guards and police, and across the front of the headquarters. It was great to see so much support even though the warehouse workers themselves were based far from London. Another positive vibe for the summer of determination- setting a tone of hope.