Union leaders from Britain, France and Germany are to meet in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss the rise of Amazon in Europe and how to engage with the online retailer on job security, warehouse working conditions and low pay.
National organisers from the Verdi union in Germany, CGT in France and the GMB in Britain all view Amazon as a leading example of how a new generation of powerful e-commerce employers treat their low-skilled workforce.
Workers at some Amazon warehouses in France have held a series of strikes recently, while many of their counterparts in Germany took industrial action earlier in the year and are awaiting meetings with management before deciding on further moves.
In Britain the GMB is still building membership at Amazon and wants to be granted "fair and unfettered" access to warehouse sites to talk to staff about joining up.
It is understood that the three unions meeting in Berlin will explore campaign strategies including efforts to draw links between Amazon's much-criticised European tax arrangements and the group's approach to low-wage workers.
Some union leaders have already argued low-wage employees are often heavily dependent on in-work benefits, which they say effectively amount to a government subsidy. They believe the wider public does not want to see such subsidies channelled to successful multinational businesses if they are not seen as contributing their fair share in tax.
Amazon has been accused in the past of using aggressively anti-union tactics to resist unionisation in Milton Keynes, one of its first UK warehouses. In evidence to a parliamentary committee union leaders said the Graphic Paper and Media Union (GPMU), which is now part of Unite, was defeated in a 2001 union representation ballot in Milton Keynes after Amazon ran an anti-union campaign, issuing workers T-shirts with slogans such as "Tell the GPMU yesterday's gone", and "Vote NO".
Union leaders told MPs: "Prior to the ballot taking place the management held interviews with each individual employee and meetings with groups of workers to ask why they needed a union and to make sure they were aware of the company's views on union membership. In addition the company distributed a sample ballot paper to make it clear how employees should fill it in." Amazon have since disputed this account.
The online retailer today employs about 7,000 staff in the UK, many of them in low-pay warehouse jobs. Amazon says 5,800 are permanent staff, on a minimum salary of £7.10 an hour.
The group says temporary staff earn more than 90% of starting wages for permanent workers for the first 12 weeks, then the same pay as permanent colleagues.
In April, the head of Amazon in the UK, Christopher North, said the online retailer pays a competitive wage "to attract the best and brightest we can". He said: "We think morally its is our responsibility to ensure they are safe and are properly compensated."
Asked about its approach to unions, a spokesman said: "We firmly believe the most effective way to understand and respond to our workforce needs and concerns is to work directly with our associates [staff]. We have multiple avenues to listen to and respond to our [staff], including employee surveys, anonymous helplines, voice of associate boards, All Hands meetings, roundtables, and other mechanisms.
"We have a democratically elected forum at each fulfilment centre which represents the interests of employees and regularly meets with senior management. We also have an open-door policy that allows associates to bring their comments, questions and concerns directly to their management teams and we feel we can best address our associates' needs by encouraging this open-door policy in our workplace."