Participants in the meeting, which featured an unscheduled
appearance by President Joe Biden, discussed organisers' efforts to form unions
in their workplaces, and how those could prompt workers around the country to
mount similar organisation campaigns, according to a readout from the White
House. Biden thanked them for bolstering organising momentum that is growing
nationally.
Among the guests were Chris Smalls, who heads the Amazon
Labor Union that won a vote last month to unionize warehouse workers on Staten
Island, New York. Addressing a union conference in Washington last month, Biden
quipped, “By the way, Amazon here we come,” drawing loud cheers, though he
didn't elaborate.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said after the meeting
that Biden's participation was about promoting labour organising across the
country, not at Amazon specifically.
“The president has long been a supporter of the rights of
workers to organise, the rights of collective bargaining and he dropped by this
meeting to simply offer his support for those efforts,” Psaki said. “But he is
not engaging — we don't engage or get directly involved in labor disputes,
obviously, but he certainly supports the rights of workers.”
Today, I met with grassroots worker organizers to thank them for their leadership in organizing unions. From the Amazon Labor Union to IATSE at Titmouse Productions, these folks are inspiring a movement of workers across the country to fight for the pay and benefits they deserve. pic.twitter.com/QZwdUEX3Xp
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
Other organisers attending Thursday's meeting included those
working to unionize Starbucks, outdoors retailer REI and the animation studio
Titmouse.
Before the meeting, Smalls testified at a Senate Budget
committee hearing on Amazon's federal contracts. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the
Vermont Independent who chairs the committee, has been pressing the White House
to cut off the company's contracts with the government until the retailer stops
what Sanders has called its “illegal anti-union activity.”
— I'm here to learn, not teach (@Feelz_GenY) May 6, 2022
In a filing released in March, the company disclosed it
spent about $4.2 million last year on labor consultants, who organizers say
Amazon hired to persuade workers not to unionize. Organizers believe cutting
off Amazon's federal contracts would fulfill the president's campaign promise
to ensure such deals only go to companies that sign agreements "committing
not to run anti-union campaigns.”
Seattle-based Amazon did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. Sanders' office said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos declined to
come to the hearing.
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