Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Amazon’s first unionized workers Sunday in New York that her victory was “the first domino to fall” in a wave of similar votes for representation across the country that she had been anticipating.
The left-wing Democrat took to the stage in Staten Island with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to celebrate the historic achievement and urge workers at other Amazon facilities across the US to follow their lead.
“What happened out here… what you guys did in Staten Island was just the beginning. It was the first domino to fall,” she said, noting workers at a second Amazon sorting facility in the New York borough voted Monday.
“We have another election tomorrow and we will support it. And the day after, and the day after, all the way. But what Amazon needs to do first and foremost is recognize the union that won their election.”
Amazon has so far refused to recognize the vote at its Staten Island fulfillment center after accusing it of intimidating and baiting workers with anti-union messages during the campaign and spending millions of dollars to ensure the vote fails.
Immediately following the finding, Amazon, owned by the second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, whose personal fortune is estimated by Forbes at $170 billion, went to court to try to overturn the finding.
“First of all Amazon, Jeff Bezos, everyone, we have to acknowledge the fact that they did this thing and won a union election fairly and honestly,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Bernie Sanders at the Staten Island rally. Photo: Andrew Kelly/Reuters“You have to treat our people right. You can give our workers a bathroom break, you can make sure that you treat people well and give them solid health care, and that they don’t have to commute three hours to and from work, that they can afford a house that the People aren’t going to sleep in their cars to work for Amazon.
“All of this is an outrage and an injustice and it has no place in New York City, and we’re going to change that, and right here, our workers out here are going to change that.”
Sanders was equally scathing about Amazon’s treatment of workers. “If you have a company that’s making huge profits, you know what, you can pay your workers good wages, provide good benefits and have decent working conditions, not what you have now,” he said.
Addressing Chris Smalls, the union organizer behind the successful New York election, and other activists in attendance, Sanders added: “You may not know this, but you were an inspiration to millions of workers across the country who looked at you and said : “These guys in Staten Island stood up to an extraordinarily powerful corporation. If they can do it in Staten Island, we can do it across the country.
Sanders also fired on centrist Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, whom he says are “sabotaging” the American working class with their opposition to Joe Biden’s social reform agenda.
Though he didn’t mention them by name, it was clear he was attacking the two Democrats whose opposition to Biden’s “Build Back Better” package of social spending, welfare and climate action blocked his passage through Congress.
“To get it through we need at least 50 Democrats standing up for the working class of this country, we don’t have them,” he said.
“We have a few people busy sabotaging the working-class agenda.”