Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders challenged Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to explain reports of the alleged series’ aggressive aggressive anti-union tactics to prevent workers from organizing at U.S. facilities.
Bezos, who until his recent divorce was the richest man worth $ 184 billion, did not want to attend the Senate Budget Committee’s hearing on inequality this week. Sanders, who chairs the committee, personally invited the founder of the billionaire. The national spotlight has focused on thousands of workers trying to form a union at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. Two lawmakers, including President Joe Biden and Senator Marco Rubio, Florida’s GOP senator, have publicly expressed support for the Alabama workers’ union plan.
During his appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, Sanders tweeted to Bezos that he, of all people, “can afford to pay them more.” The senator then asked why the billionaire would even choose to oppose workers who arrange to guarantee permanent and not temporary improvements in safety and job security.
“I say to Jeff Bezos, the richest person on the planet: What’s your problem with Amazon workers organizing for better working conditions and better pay? You’re worth $ 182 BILLION. You can not keep having it all so much. is not struggling, “Sanders told Ali Velshi, host of MSNBC, in response to Bezos rejecting his Senate invitation.
According to the pro-union working group representing Amazon employees in Alabama, workers are seeking ‘fair cause’ instead of ‘arbitrariness’, the ability to challenge write-offs and terminations that are considered illegal and safer conditions. amid the pandemic. In October, the company revealed that 20,000 of its U.S. employees had tested positive or were considered positive for COVID-19. After the setback, these were the last numbers the company produced.
An employee of Bessemer, Alabama, recently filed an unfair claim for labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board, citing Amazon’s corporate wing in setting up DoItWithoutDues.com. The website makes false allegations about employees in Alabama, a ‘right to work’, which is forced to pay unions.
The Washington Post reported last week that anti-union providers began popping up in Amazon warehouse bathrooms urging workers to resist voting against pro-union unions. Sanders’ criticism this week was the ‘aggressive struggle’ to thwart union efforts.
Newsweek issued Sunday at Amazon and Sanders’ office for additional comments.
In an earlier statement to Newsweek from last November, Lisa Levandowski, Amazon spokeswoman, said: “We respect the right of our employees to join a union or not, but the fact is that Amazon is already offering what these groups claim they want.
“We do not believe this group represents the majority of our employees’ views. Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available wherever we hire, and we encourage everyone to share our overall pay, benefits and workplace environment to any other enterprise with similar work. “
An official Senate website of Sanders contains petitions supporting support efforts at multibillion-dollar corporations such as Amazon and Walmart. A recent Sanders petition and fundraising campaign contains a message from Sanders to Bezos.
” It’s absurd that in ten seconds you’re making more money than Amazon’s media employee earns in a whole year … Meanwhile, thousands of Amazon employees are being forced to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing because their wages I do not believe that ordinary Americans should subsidize the richest person in the world because you pay your employees insufficient wages, ‘Sanders wrote.
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