Dave Clark is feeling the snark.
The Amazon exec on Wednesday tweeted about the ongoing unionization efforts at the company’s fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala. Sen. Bernie Sanders was the subject of his tweets; the senator from Vermont will reportedly visit Bessemer on Friday to support workers who want to unionize.
1/3 I welcome @SenSanders to Birmingham and appreciate his push for a progressive workplace. I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace https://t.co/Fq8D6vyuh9
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) March 24, 2021
2/3 for our constituents: a $15 minimum wage, health care from day one, career progression, and a safe and inclusive work environment.
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) March 24, 2021
3/3 So if you want to hear about $15 an hour and health care, Senator Sanders will be speaking downtown. But if you would like to make at least $15 an hour and have good health care, Amazon is hiring.
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) March 24, 2021
Clark is one of Amazon’s top execs. He joined the company in 1999 and took over as Worldwide Consumer CEO this year after an 8-year stint as senior vice president of worldwide operations.
We’ve reached out to Amazon for additional comment and will update if we hear back. Update: Amazon said it had no further comment or statement beyond Clark’s tweets.
Just before the tweets about Sanders, Clark also tweeted at Sanders’ communication director in regard to the company’s decision to implement a $15 minimum wage.
Hey @cascamike the Vermont minimum wage = $11.75. @SenSanders can’t even seem to influence his home state….I can assure you while the Senator was one of many voices on this message the decision to lead on this was ours. https://t.co/0GDsPdpof5
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) March 24, 2021
More than 5,800 workers in Alabama are currently voting by mail on whether to organize under the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. It’s a pivotal vote that could set the tone, if not a precedent, for hundreds of thousands of Amazon workers. Voting ends next week.
Sanders has been vocal about the unionization efforts in Alabama. Earlier this month he invited Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to a Senate Budget Committee hearing on income inequality.
It’s unfortunate Mr. Bezos won’t join our hearing. While he’s become $78 billion richer during the pandemic, families are struggling to survive, so why is he spending a whole lot of money to stop workers from organizing a union at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama? https://t.co/haeBDYHxaz
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 12, 2021
President Joe Biden earlier this month voiced support for workers without calling out Amazon by name. Sen. Marco Rubio took a more pointed route, writing an opinion piece in USA Today that said “woke CEOs” like Bezos view workers as a “cog in a machine.”
Rubio wrote: “Here’s my standard: When the conflict is between working Americans and a company whose leadership has decided to wage culture war against working-class values, the choice is easy — I support the workers. And that’s why I stand with those at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse today.”
Amazon has fought back against efforts to unionize at its fulfillment centers, with The Washington Post reporting this month that the giant online retailer and cloud computing powerhouse is engaging in “hard-nosed” anti-union tactics it has honed over the past 27 years. Meanwhile, the company is rolling out a massive PR campaign, touting support for a national $15 per hour minimum wage.
Update: After Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) took issue with Clark’s tweet, Amazon’s news account fired back.
Paying workers $15/hr doesn't make you a "progressive workplace" when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles. https://t.co/CnFTtTKA9q
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 25, 2021
1/2 You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
2/2 We hope you can enact policies that get other employers to offer what we already do.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
