Amazon Labor Union President To Visit White House, Testify Before Bernie Sanders' Senate Budget Committee Thursday
Sanders has invited Jeff Bezos to testify as well.
Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls is back in Washington, DC this week.
While in the nation’s capital, Smalls will reportedly visit the White House, as well as testify before a U.S. Senate Committee chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The White House is presumably hosting Smalls, as well as Starbucks union organizers, due to Sanders’ urging President Biden to do so during a rally for the Amazon Labor Union last month.
According to CNBC, Vice President Harris will be hosting the meeting “with organizers from unions seeking to represent workers at Amazon.com, Starbucks and other employers.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Budget Committee will be holding a hearing on “Should Taxpayer Dollars Go to Companies that Violate Labor Laws?”
“Thursday’s hearing comes at a time when the federal government spends more than $600 billion each year on contracts to thousands of companies who employ more than four million contract workers,” according to a media advisory sent out by Sanders’ office.
“However, nearly 30 percent of the top 200 violators of workplace safety and wage theft are government contractors,” the statement continues. “Between 2014 and 2019, federal contractors were required to pay nearly $225 million in back wages to workers for Service Contract Act violations.”
Among the invited guests are:
Mr. Christian Smalls, President, Amazon Labor Union
Mr. Sean O'Brien, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Mr. Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First
Ms. Rachel Greszler, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Economic Freedom The Heritage Foundation
Mr. Glenn Spencer, Senior Vice President, Employment Policy Division U.S. Chamber of Commerce
“Chairman Sanders has also extended an invitation to Jeff Bezos to testify at the hearing,” the statement notes.
Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls was thrust into the national media spotlight last month after his independent union unexpectedly won an election at an Amazon facility in Staten Island, New York.
Earlier this week, the Amazon workers at a second Staten Island rejected the Amazon Labor Union 618-380 in a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.