Hundreds of workers at Amazon.com in Germany have walked off the job in an effort to put pressure on the American online retailer in the busy days before Christmas to settle on a new wage agreement.

The ver.di union said several hundred workers were staging one-day warning strikes at Amazon logistics centers in Leipzig, Bad Hersfeld and Graben.

Ver.di says German workers will also picket with American colleagues outside the Amazon headquarters in Seattle to press their demands.

The union says Amazon workers receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees are already paid on the upper end of what workers in that industry earn.

Amazon has about 9,000 full-time employees in Germany.