Amazon’s head of consumer attacked Senator Bernie Sanders for planning a visit to Alabama, where a historic union election is underway at one of the company’s warehouses.
Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s global consumer business, fired a series of tweets on Wednesday and Thursday morning, defending the company’s labor practices and attacking the Vermont independent senator over the debate over raising the federal minimum wage .
On Friday, Sanders, rapper Killer Mike and actor Danny Glover will meet with workers from Bessemer, Alabama Amazon, who are in the process of voting to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The meeting will take place at an RWDSU union hall in Birmingham, Alabama. Workers started voting by mail on February 8 and ballots are for Monday. Counting will start the next day.
“I welcome [Sanders] to Birmingham and I appreciate your effort for a progressive workplace, “Clark wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.” I often say that we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that is not right because we really do offer a progressive workplace. “
Clark then doubled his weight on Thursday, arguing that the minimum wage in Sanders, Vermont’s home state, is $ 11.75 an hour, while the starting wage for Amazon workers is $ 15 an hour.
In a statement, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum called Clark’s statements “arrogant and deaf”.
He added that he questions whether Amazon believes “that the wages they pay – which is below what workers in nearby unionized warehouses receive and below Alabama’s average wage – gives them the right to mistreat and dehumanize their employees, put health and the safety of its workers to harm, to demand that they maintain an unbearable pace, which even Amazon itself admits that a quarter of its workforce will not be able to serve, and to deny workers the dignity and respect they deserve.
“If working conditions were so good, Amazon wouldn’t have an extraordinarily high turnover rate of more than 100 percent a year at its facilities,” continued Appelbaum.
Amazon and some of its executives had previously attacked Sanders, who is a frequent critic of Amazon. Following criticism from Sanders and other labor advocates, Amazon in 2018 announced that it would raise its minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
In addition, last week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos declined an invitation from Sanders to appear on the Senate Budget Committee for a hearing on income inequality. Sanders, who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also invited Jennifer Bates, a worker at the Bessemer warehouse where the union election is taking place, to testify.
Amazon played defense when support for the union movement increased, coming from President Joe Biden and lawmakers on both sides of the corridor. In recent weeks, the company has frequently responded to criticism of its labor practices on Twitter and promoted its $ 15 hourly minimum wage in print and digital ads.
Labor leaders and lawmakers took advantage of the election for its potential to spur similar movements in other companies and in other sectors. Some Amazon employees in other parts of the country hope that the union campaign will be successful so that they can generate support to organize their own workplaces.
Amazon said earlier that it respects the right of workers to join a union, but also that its workers do not need a union to stand between them and the company. It has held mandatory meetings with workers who defend the case against union membership and has set up a website that asks workers to “do this without paying fees”.