Washington, D.C. – Sarah Miller, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project, released the following statement in support of efforts by Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama to organize for safer working conditions and better pay.

“Like millions of Americans across the country, the American Economic Liberties Project is inspired by and supportive of the efforts of Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama to organize for safer working conditions and better pay.

“In recent decades, corporate monopolies have leveraged their market power to abuse working people, suppress their wages, and obstruct their efforts to unionize. Amazon has perfected this approach – and Amazon workers everywhere deserve a union.

“With a monopoly in warehousing and logistics, Amazon subjects its workers to unsafe conditions, constant surveillance, and an unfair “time off task” policy that prevents workers from taking adequate breaks. It has admitted to stealing at least $61.7 million in tips from Amazon delivery drivers. And though more than 20,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Amazon warehouses, Amazon has cut workers’ hazard pay. This is one key component of Amazon’s overall corporate strategy of pursuing market dominance to systematically extract wealth and power from workers, independent businesses, and communities around the country.

“For too long, Congress and antitrust enforcers have stood by while Amazon built a sprawling monopoly, engaging in predatory business tactics that public officials failed to police. As warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama fight to organize one of the world’s most powerful monopolies, policymakers and enforcers must accelerate their efforts to correct the mistakes of the past that concentrated extreme amounts of power in Amazon’s hands in the first place.”

To learn more about the growing momentum to break Amazon’s monopoly power, read Economic Liberties Research Director Matt Stoller’s latest for The Guardian.

###

The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.