Detlev Börs, head of the Amazon works council, goes into the hall of the labor court next to his lawyer Svenja Meergans (l).
Photo: dpa | Philip Schulze
Detlev Börs knows the Amazon location in Winsen pretty well and his colleagues know him: as someone who has been committed to them for a long time. In 2017, the group’s logistics center (HAM2) was opened in Lower Saxony, south-east of Hamburg. In the same year Börs, who comes from the area, started earning his money there. Before that, he had worked as a school bus driver and DJ in a Lüneburg discotheque.
Around 1,900 people work at Amazon in Winsen, and there has been a works council since May 2018. Börs was initially a successor, since the elections in May 2022 he has been a permanent member and also works council chairman. The shipping giant now wants to get rid of the early 60-year-old and fired him – despite special protection against dismissal. The accusation: Börs was partly pursuing private activities at the German Works Council Day in November 2022, which he attended in his function during working hours. Verdi suspects union busting is behind the termination, i.e. the systematic fight against unions and union-related works councils. That is obvious – in Lower Saxony alone there are two other current cases of unwelcome works councils, which the company has got rid of: in Achim and in Wunstorf.
The fact that the works council refuses to agree to such a termination is not a matter of course at Amazon. In Achim, for example, the majority of the committee is close to the group – and accordingly supported the dismissal of the colleague there. It is different in Winsen in the case of Detlev Börs: Verdi has had a stable majority here since the 2022 elections. The works council refused to agree to the expulsion. The case ended up in court. On Wednesday he was heard before the Lüneburg labor court, which confirmed the dismissal. Börs and colleagues will not accept this – it goes to the next instance.