Twitter, and the internet itself, is a veritable buffet of bad takes. But there’s a difference between your run of the mill internet fails and this delusional screed written by Amazon executive Dave Clark. Clark, the CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer unit, tweeted a response to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ visit to Birmingham, Alabama to support Amazon workers fighting to unionize their warehouse.
“I welcome @SenSanders to Birmingham and appreciate his push for a progressive workplace,” Clark tweeted. “I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace. 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.”
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
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
Big claims for a company that solicited donations to fund their workers’ sick leave. Or saw thousands of employees worldwide going on strike over poor working conditions. Or the company’s exploitative use of temp workers during the holidays to avoid giving them benefits. Or the hundreds of OSHA investigations into unsafe working conditions in their warehouses. Or repeated allegations of racism and bias despite touting their “diversity.” Or practices so heinous they’ve earned their own segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver:
Also let’s be real: if any company is the “Bernie Sanders of employers” it would be that one-woman shop that made the senator’s recycled mittens made famous at the inauguration.
Twitter quickly rushed to correct Clark, by reminding him of Amazon’s myriad abuses:
This you 👀 https://t.co/b3L0ZIK7vO pic.twitter.com/GTz1zxNQbs
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) March 24, 2021
Sounds great man pic.twitter.com/2xSHj5LTGe
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 24, 2021
— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) March 24, 2021
Yes, tell us more, Dave pic.twitter.com/MI53zKgBdO
— Judith Benezra (@JudithBenezra) March 24, 2021
— Forcing workers to urinate in bottles
— Firing pregnant women for taking too many bathroom breaks
— Hiring analysts to monitor ‘labor organizing threats’
— Making employees attend mandatory anti-union meetingsThis is what a senior VP of Amazon calls a “progressive workplace.” https://t.co/l1BTe2SLqO
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) March 24, 2021
yeah okay buddy!!!!!! https://t.co/MFFU6UJYSq pic.twitter.com/vThK5PgK0X
— manny (@mannyfidel) March 24, 2021
Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan called out Clark’s tweets, writing “Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a “progressive workplace” when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles.” The Amazon News Twitter account (aka Dave Clark frantically switching Twitter accounts) responded,
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
A trillion dollar company trolling an elected politician? Must be Thursday. Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) tweeted, “How arrogant and tone deaf can Amazon be? Do they really believe that the wage they pay – which is below what workers in nearby unionized warehouses receive and below Alabama’s median wage- gives them the right to mistreat and dehumanize their employees?”
Instead of taking the L and deleting his account, Clark fired back at Sanders with this tweet:
All we want to know is why the Sen is one of the most powerful pols in VT for 30+ yrs and their min wage is STILL only $11.75.AMZN’s min wage is $15 + great health care from Day 1.The Sen should save his finger wagging lecture until after he actually delivers in his own backyard. https://t.co/dRo2Tv1xDQ
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) March 25, 2021
Because what better way to win progressives to your side then by going after Bernie Sanders? Also, what kind of megalomaniac demands praise for doing a subpar job of protecting its own workers? I guess it’s the same type of guy who was nicknamed “the Sniper” by “lurking in the shadows of Amazon warehouses and scoping out slackers he could fire.”
At least have the nerve to be ruthless and hated! Plenty of people make plenty of money that way.
— Amanda Mull (@amandamull) March 25, 2021
If you believe that Amazon truly has it workers best interests at heart, consider who and what you’re defending.
new amazon logo just dropped pic.twitter.com/ptsa6nyeYD
— Bes D. Socialist (@besf0rt) March 25, 2021
(via Vice, featured image: Amazon)
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