WASHINGTON — On Sunday, President Biden threw his support for a push by workers at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama to form a union.
If successful, it would be the first union based in the United States for Amazon workers. Biden did not mention the Amazon workers specifically but did reference “workers in Alabama” in a Twitter video in which he voiced his support for the effort.
Amazon has been aggressive in trying to quell efforts in several places by workers to unionize.
Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana supports the workers’ ability to form a union, but places much of the blame as to why they feel they need to do it on Amazon for not properly treating their workers “the old fashioned way” as he put it to Fox Business.
“Every worker should have the right to join a union,” Braun said. “And then every company should have as its main defense why you don’t need it is because you pay your workers well enough and you have good benefits and you know that it might hurt the profitability of the company down the road in a way that won’t be good for owners or workers.”
Braun said it’s a tricky balance that companies like Amazon and Costco have not been able to master.
He said this is also another reason for the government not to tamper too much with the federal minimum wage. Braun’s theory is that if you leave it alone and let companies compete for labor, wages will increase on their own well above the $15 an hour threshold that many progressive Democrats are pushing for.
“We pay more than that in many of my home counties because we compete for labor the old-fashioned way,” said Braun. “Places like Amazon, Costco are going to be vulnerable because they are such wealthy companies that don’t pay their employees enough through the system that should be in place, which is that competition for labor.”
Braun also doubled down on his opposition to the COVID relief bill which is now in the Senate. He said all the money in this bill will be borrowed and that only “nine to ten percent” of the money bill is geared towards COVID relief purposes.
