An Amazon employee in a fulfillment center. (Amazon press photo)
Policy, politics and progressive commentary
WASHINGTON â Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took Amazon to task Thursday at a congressional hearing, bashing the online giantâs leadership for fighting union drives and questioning whether the federal government should continue contracting with the multibillion-dollar company.
Amazon executives didnât attend the hearing but U.S. senators did hear from labor unions and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, used the panelâs broad jurisdiction to highlight Amazonâs high turnover rate in its warehouses located throughout the country, National Labor Relations Board rulings against the company for anti-union activities and âinadequateâ workplace safety policies.
âI think the taxpayers in this country want to know that when their tax dollars are going to contracts with companies, that those companies obey the law,â Sanders said. âI donât think thatâs asking terribly much.â
Sanders, an independent who ran in the Democratic presidential primary in 2016 and again in 2020, called on President Joe Biden to fulfill a promise he made while campaigning âto institute a multiyear federal debarment for all employers who illegally oppose unionsâ and to âensure federal contracts only go to employers who sign neutrality agreements committing not to run anti-union campaigns.â
Sanders said he believed Biden to be sincere when making those pledges, adding that âthe time for talk is over, the time for action is now.â
Amazon employs more than 10,500 Nevadans at more than a dozen warehouses, distribution facilities, and fulfillment centers throughout the state, mostly in Southern Nevada.
Graham sees âdangerous turnâ
South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham vehemently disagreed with Sandersâ characterizations of Amazon, saying that while the company is subject to federal laws, it shouldnât have to be subjected to the hearing.
âThis committee is taking a very dangerous turn under your leadership, to be honest with you,â said Graham, the top Republican on the committee. âYouâre singling out a single company because of your political agenda to socialize this country.â
Christian Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, which won a vote in Staten Island, New York, last month, criticized Graham for what he viewed as being more on the side of the employer than employees.
âIt sounds like you were talking about more of the companies and the businesses in your speech, but you forgot that the people are the ones who make these companies operate,â Smalls said. âYet weâre not protected and the process for when we hold these companies accountable is not working for us. And thatâs the reason why weâre here today.â
Smalls argued that union protections and employee safety shouldnât be a Democratic or a Republican issue, but an issue that affects workers throughout the country.
He also rebuked Amazon for working against union organizers and for not meeting union representatives for the Staten Island warehouse at the bargaining table after employees voted to form a union.
âThe corporations have the control ⌠they break the law, they get away with it,â Smalls said.
Smalls met with Biden later in the day, tweeting âhe said I got him in trouble,â before an emoji and âgooooooooooood.â
The meeting wasn’t on Biden’s public schedule. But Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh were slated to hold a meeting at the White House Thursday afternoon with “grassroots worker organizers to discuss their extraordinary efforts to organize unions in their workplaces,” according to Harris’ schedule.
Workers at a second Amazon warehouse in Staten Island rejected the union in a vote earlier this week.
Service Contract Act violators
Thomas Costa, director of the Education, Workforce and Income Security branch of the Government Accountability Office, testified later in the hearing that 622 contractors with Service Contract Act violations were still able to get contracts with the federal government worth $35 billion.
That act addresses federal contractors with wage violations, or misclassifying someone in a lower position, and those that deny people so-called fringe benefits like paid leave or vacation time.
During the five-year period from fiscal 2014-2019, the U.S. Department of Labor looked at 5,000 cases and found violations of the federal law in 68 percent of those cases. Employers in 94 percent of those cases complied with the law and paid back $204 million in back wages. A total of 60 were debarred, meaning they couldn’t get federal contracts for three years.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine took an approach somewhere in between his two colleaguesâ positions, noting that officials and residents in the Northern Virginia suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C., are excited for Amazon to bring 35,000 jobs to the region with its new headquarters.
Not all of Amazonâs 1 million employees hate their jobs, said Kaine, a Democrat.
But, he added that management and executives should exemplify the approach to working with unions that Kaineâs father had when he managed a union ironworkers shop.
âHe just taught us growing up, unions and management shouldn’t be fighting, it should be a team,â Kaine said, adding he hopes managers and employees will aim âto be a team without owners kicking workers around and without employers being demonized.â
Kaine admonished management for how long it typically takes after employees vote to form a union for there to be a contract, noting most unions cannot get a contract in the first three years âbecause the employer just stonewalls.â
Democrats have legislation, known as the Pro Act, that would overhaul how the unionization process works, though the bill doesnât have the necessary Republican support to get past the Senateâs legislative filibuster.
Sean O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, told committee members that non-union companies tend to have a âsignificant competitive advantageâ in securing federal contracts compared to companies with unions.
He testified that Amazon workers should have the chance to choose the type of union protections that other companies, like UPS, have.
âAmazon needs to be held accountable,â O’Brien said. âAnd how you hold them accountable is taking back some of these contracts until they are a responsible employer.â
The post Bernie Sanders at U.S. Senate hearing rips Amazon over union opposition appeared first on Nevada Current.
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