President Biden expressed support for a union vote by Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama in a two-minute video posted on Twitter Sunday, though he did not name the tech giant specifically.
Why it matters: A vote by workers at the Bessemer, Ala., warehouse to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union would make the facility the first Amazon warehouse to unionize in the U.S., per NPR. The election will run through March 29.
What he’s saying: “Workers in Alabama — and all across America — are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace. It’s a vitally important choice — one that should be made without intimidation or threats by employers,” Biden tweeted. “Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union.”
- Biden said in the video there should be “no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda” during the election.
- “I’ve long said America wasn’t built by Wall Street, it was built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class,” Biden said.
The big picture: Biden pledged on the campaign trail to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.”
- “We haven’t had this aggressive and positive of a statement from a president of the United States on behalf of workers in decades,” Faiz Shakir, former campaign manager to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the founder of More Perfect Union, told the Washington Post.
- “It is monumental that you have a president sending a message to workers across the country that if you take the courageous step to start to unionize you will have allies in the administration, the NLRB, and the Labor Department. It means a lot.”