Amazon is taking the offensive against prominent lawmakers amid the largest union campaign in the history of the online retailer. Amazon’s official PR Twitter account, @amazonnews, on Friday criticized Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for their constant criticism of the e-commerce company.
“There’s a big difference between talking and action,” Amazon tweeted. “@SenSanders has been a powerful politician in Vermont for 30 years and his minimum wage is $ 11.75. Amazon’s is $ 15, plus great health care from day one. Sanders prefers to talk to Alabama to act to Vermont. “
Amazon also retweeted a comment from Dave Clark, the company’s worldwide consumer CEO, who said Sanders “should keep his lecture with his fingers until he makes delivery to his own garden.”
Sanders, an independent in Congress who often allies with Democrats, was in Bessemer, Alabama, Friday to support Amazon workers protesting for the right to join a union. Plant employees are casting their ballots in the election by mail, with voting ending March 29.
At the rally, Sanders went directly to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, accusing the richest man in the world of being out of touch with his workers.
“Why, when you have so much money (more money that can be spent in a million lives), why do you spend millions trying to defeat an effort of the workers here who want nothing more than decent wages, decent profits, decent work? Conditions? “Sanders said.
On Friday, Amazon also became entangled with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who earlier this week accused the company of exploiting tax loopholes.
Amazon declined: “You 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 the cracks you exploit: your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did.” She added, “You bet I’ll fight to make you pay your fair share. And I’ll fight the destruction of your union. And I’ll fight to break Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to stop senators with snot 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 he will break an American company so they can’t criticize it anymore.”
Amazon has told federal regulators that it paid $ 1.8 billion in federal taxes in 2020, which is 15 times the tax it paid the previous two years and about 8% of the $ 22 billion profits the company makes. recorded last year.
The company is also in discussions with members of Congress. Mark Pocan, who represents Wisconsin’s second district, tweeted on Amazon this week that just a $ 15 salary didn’t make it a good job “when you reject unions and make workers urinate in bottles of water “.
Pocan was referring to widespread reports of Amazon drivers and workers who had so little time to take breaks that they were forced to unload in empty bottles or in public.
Amazon denied the accusation: “You don’t really believe in urinating in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us,” he tweeted to the company.
Twitter users responded with news from Amazon workers complaining of inhumane working conditions. Even representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke. The New York House member tweeted a screenshot of an email in which an Amazon manager complained about the “urine bottles” left inside the delivery vans.