Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama have found a surprising ally in U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, with the Conservative legislature revealing Friday that he supports their efforts to unite.
The Republican senator from Florida publishes an open in USA Today in which Amazon accuses AMZN,
of a ‘war on working class values’ while casting its support behind the workers in Bessemer, Ala. who have been voting since February on whether to organize a distribution facility there.
Rubio has blown up the Seattle-based e-tailing giant and its billionaire boss, Jeff Bezos, for trying to appeal to the traditional rejection of conservative unions, even if they are liberal on cultural issues.
“For decades, companies like Amazon were allies of the left in the culture war,” he said. “But if their conclusion is threatened, they turn to conservatives to save them.”
Rubio also put Amazon to the test because he used his leverage to smash small businesses and ban conservative books from his website and traditional charities from participating in his AmazonSmile program.
Earlier this month, four members of Congress, including Rubio, wrote to Amazon about the move to ‘When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment’, a book published in 2018 by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson, but which recently disappeared from Amazon’s website, Kindle store and Audible audiobook platform.
This week, Amazon defended its decision, saying it is because the book defines LGBTQ identity as a mental illness. Lawmakers earlier complained about the move, saying Amazon only removes things that liberals find offensive.
In the attack on Amazon’s labor practices, Rubio also quoted his memories as a young boy walking the line with his father, who was a hotel bartender in Las Vegas. Rubio said his experience instilled in him the idea that “all workers deserve respect” and that Amazon views its employees as a cog in a machine.
In his quest for workers, Rubio joins President Biden, who earlier this month posted a video on his social media account expressing his support for the workers in Bessemer. Although the president did not specifically mention Amazon by name, he said they have the right to vote without interference from their employer.
In a statement on Friday, Amazon said: “When Senator Rubio says that Amazon is ‘waging war against working class values’, does he mean our starting salary of $ 15, comprehensive benefits or the paid parental leave we offer to hourly workers? If he stands with American workers as he says, he must endorse Senator Sanders’ minimum wage bill today. ”
Amazon has launched a website – doitwithoutdues.com – aimed at discouraging its employees from organizing. One of the taglines on the site is “Vote now and vote no.”
The push to organize Amazon’s warehouse in Alabama is led by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU, welcomed Rubio’s support on Friday, saying it “shows that the best way for working people to achieve dignity and respect in the workplace is through trade unionism. This should not be a biased issue. ”
This article was first published on NYPost.com