Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is afraid of his workers unionzing because they would “take on his greed.” Sanders’s statements come amid the news surrounding the union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama and today’s deadline for handing ballots over to the regional National Labor Relations Board office.
“Jeff Bezos, worth $180 billion, is getting nervous. He’s afraid that if Amazon workers in Alabama vote to unionize, it’ll give workers all over America the courage to take on his greed & win economic justice. He’s spending millions against this union to keep billions for himself,” Sanders said.
Earlier this month, Bezos declined to testify before Senate Budget Committee on inequality after Sanders invited him.
“We fully endorse Senator Sanders’ efforts to reduce income inequality with legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour for all workers, like we did for ours in 2018,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNN at the time.
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“Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, is in many respects emblematic of the unfettered capitalism that we are seeing in America today,” Sanders said in a statement to CNN before it became clear that Bezos would not attend.
Sanders noted that Bezos was invited to testify “to explain to the American people why he believes it is appropriate for him to be spending a whole lot of money denying economic dignity to Amazon workers in Bessemer who want to form a union, while he has become $78 billion richer during the pandemic and is now worth $183 billion,”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
