It wasn’t a huge surprise when President Joe Biden earlier this month voiced support for Amazon warehouse workers’ unionization efforts at a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala.
After all, Democrats and unions have historically been joined at the hip.
But signaling the challenges Amazon now faces from liberal and conservative politicians, Sen. Marco Rubio this morning penned an opinion piece in USA Today offering his support for the warehouse workers. And the Florida senator, who has aspirations to be president, was certainly pointed in his remarks:
“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.”
That’s a more direct attack on Amazon than Biden’s muted response. Biden didn’t mention Amazon by name in remarks earlier this month, and simply said the Alabama union effort is a “vitally important choice” for workers.
Rubio, on the other hand, did not hold back, calling out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos by name and noting that “woke CEOs” like Bezos view workers as a “cog in a machine.” He writes:
“Uniquely malicious corporate behavior like Amazon’s justifies a more adversarial approach to labor relations. It is no fault of Amazon’s workers if they feel the only option available to protect themselves against bad faith is to form a union. Today it might be workplace conditions, but tomorrow it might be a requirement that the workers embrace management’s latest “woke” human resources fad.”
Axios reported this week that several ambitious Republicans are abandoning some of their traditional business ties in an effort to align with working class voters, a big contingent of Donald Trump’s base. In fact, Rubio in December said in a speech that a “patriotic, pro-worker Republican party is emerging.”
Amazon, for its part, has fought back against efforts to unionize at its fulfillment centers, with The Washington Post reporting this week 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 national $15 per hour minimum wage.
The 5,805 warehouse workers in Alabama are currently participating in a mail-in balloting program to decide whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, with a final vote expected to close on March 29.
We’ve asked Amazon for comment about Rubio’s opinion piece, and we’ll update this post as we learn more.
