its minimum wage for all American employees would be raised to $15 per hour. Sanders congratulated the company for making this decision. In 2023, workers at Amazon's distribution center in the United Kingdom were also hit with strikes. Over 350 workers at the company's warehouse in Coventry, walked out on the job to go on strike against Amazon. The main goal of the strike is to argue for a raise wages from £10.50 to £15 an hour. Amazon has countered this by offering a 50p per hour pay rise, which was rejected by GMB. The strikes could also spread to Amazon's distribution center in Essex. Worker conditions Former employees, current employees, the media, and politicians have criticized Amazon for poor working conditions at the company. In 2011, it was publicized that workers had to carry out tasks in heat at the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania warehouse. As a result of these conditions, employees became extremely uncomfortable and suffered from dehydration and collapse. Loading-bay doors were not opened to allow in fresh air because of concerns over theft. Amazon's initial response was to pay for an ambulance to sit outside on call to cart away overheated employees. The company eventually installed air conditioning at the warehouse. Some workers, "pickers", who travel the building with a trolley and a handheld scanner "picking" customer orders, can walk up to during their workday and if they fall behind on their targets, they can be reprimanded. The handheld scanners give real-time information to the employee on how quickly or slowly they are working; the scanners also serve to allow Team Leads and Area Managers to track the specific locations of employees and how much "idle time" they gain when not working. In a German television report broadcast in February 2013, journalists Diana Löbl and Peter Onneken conducted a covert investigation at the distribution center of Amazon in the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hessen. The report highlights the behavior of some of the security guards, themselves being employed by a third-party company, who apparently either had a neo-Nazi background or deliberately dressed in neo-Nazi apparel and who were intimidating foreign and temporary female workers at its distribution centers. The third-party security company involved was delisted by Amazon as a business contact shortly after that report. In March 2015, it was reported in The Verge that Amazon would be removing non-compete clauses of 18