On 20 November, by ruling in favor of the Verdi services trade union against Amazon, Germany’s Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgerich, or BAG) decided that a trade union had the right, under certain circumstances, to address workers who had been called to strike, in an area belonging to an employer that was right in front of the workplace entrance. In this case the area in question was a car park right at the Amazon office entrance in Pforzheim. Verdi, which since 2013 had been calling for better working conditions for the workers as well as for a collective agreement with Amazon, welcomed the court’s ruling that now strengthens the right to strike action in Germany.
Property rights vs. the right to strike. The BAG in Erfurt was the final court that had to rule on a fundamental issue, namely did unionized employees have the right to strike on a company’s workplace site thereby turning company assets back on itself? Which right would prevail? Would the right to ownership by a company (Hausrecht) prevail over the right to strike by a worker (Streikrecht) or vice versa? In this case Amazon had brought proceedings against its Verdi unionized employees who had d
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