[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 23 (Monday, February 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S583-S584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 AMAZON

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, today, Amazon workers in Alabama will begin 
receiving ballots that will give them, finally, a real voice in their 
workplace by choosing to join a union.
  Amazon would not be the massively successful company that it is and 
Jeff Bezos wouldn't be a multibillionaire without the hard work and the 
dedication of its hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers. They have put 
in long hours and risked their own health during this pandemic to meet 
the increased demand that we all know.
  As of October, 20,000--think of this--20,000 Amazon workers, 20,000 
workers at one company, Amazon, had contracted COVID-19. That is as of 
October. We know those numbers would be much higher today.
  Because of their hard work, Amazon's profits have soared by more than 
70 percent. The company's workers deserve to share in the success that 
they made possible.
  Amazon claims to recognize the value of its workers. They call their 
workers ``heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get 
critical items they need.'' Heroes, they call them.
  If the company truly believed and appreciated that they were heroes, 
Amazon might back up its words with action. That means letting these 
workers organize. It means stopping the corporate union-busting tactics 
that they have deployed against these workers.
  Amazon, one of most powerful corporations in the world, unleashed all 
of that power to fight their own workers who are just asking for a 
voice on the job. They have harassed employees with anti-union 
propaganda, misleading text messages, websites, and fliers.
  One Washington Post headline really said it all: ``Amazon's anti-
union blitz stalks Alabama warehouse workers everywhere, even the 
bathroom.''
  Workers have reported they don't get enough time for bathroom breaks 
in the warehouse. That is how intense the company's pressure is. When 
they are able to use the restroom, even there, workers are hit with 
anti-union propaganda fliers on the stall doors.
  Amazon has repeatedly tried to block mail-in voting and force workers 
to hold the union election in person, putting its workers--remember, 
20,000 already have been diagnosed back in October--putting its 
workers' health at even more risk, just to suppress the vote. It is all 
part of a pattern for Amazon.
  In 2019, Amazon fired a Staten Island warehouse worker who called for 
unionization. They monitor employees' online communications. Last fall, 
we learned the company planned to spend hundreds of thousands of 
dollars on new software to monitor, their words, ``threats'' like 
unions.
  It is little wonder Amazon is afraid of workers getting more power. 
So much of their business model is built on top of exploiting workers, 
often Black and Brown workers and women.
  Instead of employing many drivers directly, they use what they call 
Amazon Flex drivers. Just like with other gig economy jobs, ``Flex'' is 
corporate PR speak for denying workers their rights as full employees.
  They have failed to provide complete data on COVID-19 spread in the 
workplace, so we really can't find out whether the company is 
protecting its workers' health.
  Amazon rolled back its tiny $2-per-hour pandemic raise in June. It 
announced a $2-an-hour bonus pandemic raise with great fanfare many 
months ago. Then they rolled it back in June, and then they announced a 
one-time bonus of $300 per worker, not $3,000 per worker, $300 a worker 
from a company that brought in $200 billion in revenue the previous 
year. I am sorry, $280 billion--280,000 million--$280 billion in 
revenue; they gave workers a bonus of $300.
  And Amazon is not alone. The Washington Post looked at the 50 biggest 
corporations and found that between April and September, these 
companies handed out more than $240 billion to their stockholders 
through stock buybacks and dividends.
  Companies like that are making more and more and more money. They are 
giving it back to executives and stockholders in huge dividends and 
stock buybacks. Yet their workers are exposed to these health hazards 
at work, exposed to this virus. They come home always anxious and 
scared about infecting their families.
  The workers risk their own health, often at rockbottom wages, to make 
those companies so profitable.
  If even a global pandemic, where America's workers have been on the 
frontline, if even that will not get corporations to rethink their 
business model that treats workers as expendable, then we have to give 
workers more power on the job.
  A grocery store worker said: You know, they say--told me, they say I 
am essential, but, really, I feel expendable because they don't pay me 
much, and they don't protect me on the job.


                                PRO Act

  Mr. President, so what do we do?
  It should mean collective bargaining. It should mean unions. It is 
why I joined Senator Murray and many of my colleagues last week to 
reintroduce the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the PRO Act.
  It is a comprehensive overhaul of our labor laws to protect workers' 
right to stand together and bargain for fair wages, fair benefits, 
safer workplaces.
  We know corporations have attacked and undermined worker protections 
for decades, made it harder and harder for workers even to stand a 
chance in organizing a union when they choose to.
  And look what has happened to our economy, as corporations take away 
workers' power: Productivity goes up, corporate profits soar, executive 
compensation explodes through the roof, but wages stay flat, and the 
middle class shrinks
  Just go over that again. Corporate profits, workers' productivity 
goes up. Workers are working harder and more efficiently. Productivity 
goes up, corporate profits soar, executive compensation explodes, but 
wages stay flat, and the middle class shrinks.
  Our bill would work to level the playing field, finally give workers 
a fighting chance against corporate union-busting tactics like we see 
right now today, last week, the week before, and today at Amazon.
  It would strengthen the punishment against companies that violate 
workers' rights to organize and the companies that retaliate against 
union organizers.
  It would restore to an economy rigged against workers by closing 
loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as 
supervisors and independent contractors so they don't have to live 
under labor law.
  We can't in this country, whether it is in Las Cruces or in Dayton--
we can't have a strong, growing middle class without strong unions.
  Union members earn 19 percent more, on the average, than similar 
workers in nonunion jobs. They have better healthcare. They are better 
able to

[[Page S584]]

save for retirement. They have more predictable hours--talk to the 
Amazon workers about their hours--and they have more control over their 
schedules and more economic security.
  At a time when this pandemic reveals so much about inequality in our 
society, it is more vital than ever that we empower all workers.
  It is not a coincidence that so many of the workers, at corporations 
like Amazon, whom they exploit are workers of color. It is true at the 
Amazon Alabama facility. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store 
Union, organizing in Alabama, has made respect and dignity central to 
its campaign.
  It comes back to the dignity of work. Remember what Dr. King said. He 
said:

       No labor is really menial unless you're not getting 
     adequate wages.

  The president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, 
Stuart Appelbaum, said:

       We see this as much as a civil rights struggle as a labor 
     struggle.

  We know where Dr. King was assassinated and what he was doing. He was 
fighting for civil rights. He was fighting for worker rights, fighting 
for sanitation workers in Memphis, some of the most exploited workers 
in America.
  A union card is a ticket to the middle class, and we fight for 
economic justice by making it available to all workers. We just need 
corporations just to get out of the way, let workers organize, let 
workers take control over their careers and their futures.
  When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it 
work, whether it is in New Mexico or Ohio or all over this country.
  That is what the Amazon workers in Alabama are doing. It is what 
unions have done throughout our history in this country. It is what we 
can do in the Senate by passing the PRO Act.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.

                          ____________________