[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.
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