Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama found a surprising ally in US Senator Marco Rubio, with the conservative lawmaker on Friday revealing that he supports his union efforts.
The Republican senator from Florida published an article on USA Today that accused Amazon AMZN,
to wage “a war on the values of the working class” by supporting workers in Bessemer, Alabama, who have been voting since February on whether to organize a distribution center there.
Rubio criticized the Seattle-based e-tailing giant and its billionaire boss, Jeff Bezos, for trying to appeal to conservatives’ traditional rejection of unions, even on the side of liberals on cultural issues.
“For decades, companies like Amazon have been allies of the left in the cultural war,” he said. “But when their financial results are threatened, they turn to conservatives to save them.”
Rubio also criticized Amazon for using its weight to “crush small businesses” and ban conservative books from its website and traditional charities from participating in its AmazonSmile program.
Earlier this month, four members of Congress, including Rubio, wrote to Amazon about their decision to withdraw “When Harry became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” a book published by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson in 2018, but which recently disappeared from Amazon’s website, Kindle store and Audible’s audiobook platform.
This week, Amazon defended its decision, saying it did so because the book frames LGBTQ identity as a mental illness. Lawmakers had previously complained about the measure, saying that Amazon only removes things that liberals consider offensive.
In attacking Amazon’s labor practices, Rubio also cited his memories of a boy picketing with his father, who was a bartender at a hotel in Las Vegas. Rubio said that his experience instilled in him the idea that “all workers deserve respect” and that Amazon sees its employees as “the cogs of a machine”.
In his effort for workers, Rubio joined President Biden, who earlier this month posted a video on his social media account expressing his support for workers in Bessemer. Although the president did not specifically mention Amazon’s 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 Amazon is ‘waging a war against the values of the working class’, he refers to our starting salary of $ 15, comprehensive benefits or the license paid parenting that we offer hourly workers? If he is with American workers as he says he is, he must endorse Senator Sanders’ minimum wage bill today. “
Amazon launched a website – doitwithoutdues.com – to discourage its employees from organizing. One of the website’s slogans is “Vote now and vote for”.
The effort to organize Amazon’s warehouse in Alabama is being led by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. On Friday, the president of RWDSU, Stuart Appelbaum, welcomed Rubio’s support, saying that “it demonstrates that the best way for workers to achieve dignity and respect in the workplace is through unionization. This should not be a partisan issue. “
This article was first published on NYPost.com