Amazon’s consumer boss swept Senator Bernie Sanders for planning a visit to Alabama, where a historic union election is currently underway in one of the company’s warehouses.
Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s global consumer company, fired a series of tweets late Wednesday and Thursday defending the company’s labor practices and lashing out the independent Vermont senator over the debate over raising the federal minimum wage.
On Friday, Sanders, rapper Killer Mike and actor Danny Glover will meet with Bessemer, Alabama Amazon employees who are voting to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The meeting will take place in a RWDSU union hall in Birmingham, Alabama. Workers began voting by mail on February 8, and ballots are due on Monday. Counting starts the next day.
“I welcome [Sanders] to Birmingham and appreciate his commitment to a progressive workplace, “Clark wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. I often say that we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace. “
Clark then doubled on Thursday, arguing that the minimum wage in Sanders’ home state of Vermont is $ 11.75 an hour, while the starting wage for Amazon workers is $ 15 an hour.
Amazon and some of its executives have taken jabs before at Sanders, who is a frequent Amazon critic. Following criticism from Sanders and other workforce advocates, Amazon announced in 2018 that it would raise its minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
In addition, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last week turned down an invitation from Sanders to appear before the Senate Committee on Budgets for a hearing on income inequality. Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, also invited Jennifer Bates, an employee from Bessemer’s warehouse where the union elections are taking place, to testify.
Amazon has been playing the defense as support for the union action has been ramped up by President Joe Biden and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. In recent weeks, the company has regularly responded to critics of its employment practices on Twitter, and has promoted its $ 15 per hour minimum wage in print and digital advertising.
Labor leaders and legislators have seized the election because of the potential to trigger similar movements in other companies and in other industries. Some Amazon employees in other corners of the country are hoping the union action will be successful so they can stir up support for organizing their own workplaces.
Amazon has previously said it respects employees’ right to join a union, but also that its employees don’t need a union to get between them and the company. It has held mandatory meetings with workers to set out the case against unionization and set up a website urging workers to “do it for free”.