In one of the most pro-worker statements from a modern president, Joe Biden released a video Sunday night in staunch support of Amazon warehouse workers’ right to unionize.
While Biden referenced “workers in Alabama,” he never says Amazon directly. Biden is likely referencing a recent intimidation campaign by Amazon attempting to stop a unionization effort in an Bessemer, Alabama warehouse.
“Unions lift up workers, both union and non-union, but especially Black and Brown workers,” Biden said in the Twitter video. “There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda. No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences.”
Amazon has not responded to the president’s comments siding with workers. President of the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union Stuart Appelbaum commended the Biden’s statement calling it a “clear message of support.”
“As President Biden points out, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is by organizing into unions. And that is why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama,” Appelbaum said in a statement.
On the campaign trail, Biden vowed to increase union membership in the United States and has been a long advocate for workers’ rights. When announcing former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his nominee for Secretary of Labor, the former mayor reminisced that when Biden was Vice President, the two spoke in solidarity with supermarket workers on a union strike.
