Amazon is launching an offensive against prominent lawmakers amid the most significant union campaign in the history of the online retailer. Amazon PR’s official Twitter account, @amazonnewsOn Friday, he criticized Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for their continued criticism of the e-commerce company.
“There is a big difference between speech and action,” Amazon wrote on Twitter. “@SenSanders has been a strong politician in Vermont for 30 years and their minimum wage is still $ 11.75. Amazon is $ 15, plus excellent first-day health care. Sanders would rather speak in Alabama than act in Vermont. “
Amazon also retweeted a comment from Dave Clark, the company’s global CEO for consumers, who said Sanders “should keep giving his lecture by giving his fingers until he actually delivers in his own backyard.”
Sanders, an independent in Congress who often allies with Democrats, was in Bessemer, Alabama on Friday to support Amazon workers who are gathering for the right to join a union. Factory employees now cast their ballots in the mail-order election, which ends on March 29.
At the rally, Sanders spoke directly to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, accusing the richest man in the world of having nothing to do with his workers.
“Why, when you have so much money – more money than can be spent in a million lives – why do you spend millions trying to beat an effort of workers here who want nothing more than decent wages, decent benefits, work decent conditions? “Sanders said.
Amazon also clashed on Friday with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who earlier this week accused the company of exploiting tax loopholes.
Amazon declined: “I will make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you created, change them. ”
Warren replied, “I didn’t write down the gaps you exploit – your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did.” She added: “I bet I will fight to get you to pay your fair share. And I will fight against the collapse of your union. And fight to break Big Tech so that you are not strong enough to defeat senators with stupid tweets.
Amazon responded by characterizing Warren’s comments as a personal attack on the company. “This is extraordinary and revealing. One of the most powerful politicians in the United States has just said that he will split an American company so that he can no longer criticize it.”
Amazon told federal regulators that it paid $ 1.8 billion in federal taxes in 2020 – 15 times the tax it paid in previous years and about 8% of the $ 22 billion profit the company paid to registered last year.
The company is also fighting with members of Congress. Mark Pocan, Wisconsin’s second-largest district, posted on Amazon this week that a $ 15 salary didn’t make it a good job “when you unionize your bust and make workers urinate in water bottles.” .
Pocan was referring to the widely reported accounts of Amazon drivers and warehouse workers, who had so little time for breaks that they were forced to unload in empty bottles or in public.
Amazon dismissed the accusation: “You don’t really believe the thing about peeing in bottles, do you? If it were true, no one would work for us,” the company wrote on Twitter.
Twitter users responded with news accounts of Amazon workers complaining of inhumane working conditions. Even the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed. A member of the New York Chamber posted on Twitter a screenshot of an e-mail in which an Amazon manager complained about “urine bottles” left inside delivery trucks.