 Amazon Labour Union President Chris Smalls was invited to speak before the Senate Budget Committee by committee chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders. And what we're going to see is him speak truth to power, and it is incredible. It's a fairly long clip, but every single second is worthwhile because not only does he explain what's happening to workers, but he also confronts Andy Bunk's myths espoused by shills of these companies. He addresses Lindsey Graham in particular. Now, I'm going to play the clip for you, but first I do want to give you a little bit of context because we don't see Lindsey's remarks here, but this HuffPost article does fill us in specifically on what he said. As Davy Jamieson explains, Chris Smalls showed up at the U.S. Senate in Washington on Thursday, wearing a Yankees ball cap and a jacket that said, eat the rich on the back, based his ensuing testimony to the Senate Budget Committee stayed true to form. Speaking as a witness, invited by committee chair, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Amazon Labour Union leader pilloried the world's largest online retailer as a union buster and explained in detail to senators what workers faced during a labor organizing campaign. Smalls began his testimony by taking aim at Senator Lindsey Graham, the committee's ranking Republican. Graham had sent in his opening remarks that Sanders hearing what unfairly a Mavine Amazon as a piece of crap company. What a load of horseshit. He warned against implementing Sanders' proposal to bar companies that have violated labor law from receiving federal contracts. So leave it to Lindsey Graham to be the biggest bootlicker in the country. He's saying, even as these companies violate labor laws, we should do nothing. It's just it's ridiculous. But I love that Chris Smalls addressed him. And you're going to see that. But can we just talk about him wearing his eat the rich jacket around a bunch of rich people? I mean, is that not amazing? Now, he also met with President Joe Biden today. And guess what he wore? Of course, his eat the rich jacket. I mean, he is an absolute legend. Now, he tweeted out afterwards, just met the president. LOL, he said, I got him in trouble. Good. You love to see it. Now, here is the video of Chris Smalls testifying before the Senate budget committee. This is it in its entirety. It's about five minutes. So enjoy. Well, first of all, I want to address Mr. Graham. First of all, you know, you're. It sound like he was talking about more of the companies in the businesses and your speech. But you forgot that the people are the ones who make this these companies operate. And then we're not protected. And then the process for when we hold these companies accountable is not working for us. Then that's not what that's the reason why we're here today. That's the reason why I'm here to represent the workers who make these companies go. And I think that it's in your best interest to realize that it's not a a left or right thing. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. It's a workers thing. It's a workers issue. And we're the ones that are suffering in the corporations that you're talking about and the businesses that you're talking about in the warehouses that you're talking about. So that's the reason why I think I was invited today to speak on that behalf and you should listen because we do represent your constituents as well. So just take that into consideration that the people are the ones that make these corporations go. It's not the it's not the other way around. So as the current interim president of the Amazon Labor Union, who represent eighty three hundred workers in Staten Island, independent worker led union that won their election on April 1st. I'm going to tell you this. We organized for over a year. And throughout the course of that year, Amazon spent millions of dollars, as you mentioned, sending the standards myself, including a few other organizers was arrested outside for organizing, arrested for delivering food to their coworkers. I'm going to reiterate that as well. You know, the type of things that Amazon do breaking the law intimidation. These are real things that traumatize workers in this country. You know, thousands of workers across this country who in the process of organizing who have the desire to organize in the United States, we want to feel that we have protections. We want to feel that the government is allowing us to use our constitutional rights to organize. The notion that people in the United United in this democracy will outmatch outmatch tyranny is the oldest American ideal. This clearly defined legal process to do this. And workers like us have the rights protected by the First Amendment in the National Labor Relations Act. However, despite all of this, our victory in Staten Island was lauded as newsworthy and inspirational for the thousands of workers across the country, hundreds of thousands of workers. And even though we may have won, we did everything right. Pressuring Amazon to recognize our victory and comply with our legal obligation to meet us at the bargaining table. But Amazon is refusing to do so. As you mentioned, they're going to stall. They filed in 25 objections. And they got the NLRB to move the hearing to a whole another location. To me, it just sounds like the corporations have the control and they control whatever they want. They break the law to get away with it. They know that already, that breaking the law during these election campaigns won't be resolved during the election campaigns. So they purposely continue to break the law. For example, we filed over 40 ULPs in 11 months. Most of them are quite a few of them got married for further action. Some of them even got injunctions. For example, Gerald Bryson was fired two years ago. Finally, two years later, over two years later, there's a 10 J in motion for his reinstatement. Another prime example, Dayquan Smith was fired by the company for organizing. He's still out of a job. He's living in a shelter right now. We raise money to go from me. These are just a few examples, including myself, who's been out of a job for the last two years. I want to just end off by saying this. We need to pass a pro act so that workers are protected and workers are encouraged to organize. And if that don't work, you know, I'm going to let you know right now that on behalf of the Amazon Labor Union and the hundreds of thousands of workers across this country that we will continue to organize. And once again, I want to remind you that this is not a left or right thing. This is the working class issue. And the workers at the bottom are the ones who make these corporations go. Thank you. That was incredible. And I'm not embellishing when I say this, but Chris Smalls is one of the most important leaders in America. Period. Full stop. What he's doing is invaluable. It's incredible. And he went there not only to explain the very specific ways that Amazon is intimidating their own employees and breaking the law and punishing them for trying to organize, but he called them to action. He said, we need to pass the pro act. And even if we don't get that, we're still going to keep organizing, but you should pass it because this is what we're experiencing. And if you claim to care about workers, then you would support our cause. Now, there's a lot of people in Congress who like to larp as working class allies. There's a lot of self-proclaimed populists like Josh Hawley. But if they don't support the pro act, they're absolutely telling on themselves. They're revealing that they don't care about workers and all of this populist rhetoric that they're trying to espouse is nothing more than a facade. Because if you care about workers, supporting the pro act is the one thing that you can do to help workers in the most concrete way imaginable. So what Chris Smalls is doing there is telling them, here's what you can do to help me if you truly agree with working class people. So you can take it or leave it, but you're revealing to everyone that you're a fraud if you don't support the pro act. Now, some specific things that he says here that are really important. He says you forgot that the people are the ones who make these companies operate. And that's exactly right. We absolutely depend on these companies to survive. That's how we make a living. But the truth remains that without the workers, these companies would be nothing without these billionaires exploiting the wages of their workers. They wouldn't be billionaires. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, they would not be the richest men in the world today. Had they treated their workers correctly? So the people who make these elites mega rich, they get fucked over and treated like garbage, just regarded the second they stop being what is perceived to be loyal to the company when they start to organize, right? They're treated like robots are expected to work until they die. And the fact remains that it's the people that powers these companies. They are nothing without the people. And it's really important that people internalize this fact, that workers internalize this fact. And the most important thing that Chris Mull said, it is in your best interest, speaking to Lindsey Graham and the whole committee, to realize it's not a left or right thing. It's a worker thing. And we're the one suffering in the corporations that you're talking about. And that's just it. It's a call to everyone in this country to understand that these elites, they have class solidarity. Why don't workers have class solidarity? And the answer is that because we're distracted by these politicians who want to do the bidding of these large, multi-billion dollar companies. But that's changing. That is changing. Workers have to unite. You know, being a worker, that's not just the left or right thing. As Chris Mull pointed out, there are Republicans who are workers. There are leftists who are workers. There are a political people who are workers working as a part of life because that's how we survive in this capitalist system. So it's really important, as Chris Mull acknowledges, that you all acknowledge that you all have a common purpose in making sure that you are treated fairly, have fair wages. I mean, even though there are people who I disagree with, who are workers like Republicans, like obviously they should be treated fairly. Like this shouldn't be a political thing. It should just be an American thing. Right. And I say the same the same thing about health care. Right. When I talk about Medicare for all, single-payer health care system. When I say that health care should be free at the point of service, I'm not saying just for liberals and leftists. I'm saying it should be free for everyone, even horrible people who I disagree with, because these are things that should just be guaranteed to all human beings, just specifically because they're human beings. Right. And as human beings, we should see the humanity in others. Now, Chris Mull also said the people are the ones that make these corporations go. It's not the other way around. Well, fucking said. Love everything that he said there. It was really important that he made the speech and I hope people watch it. This is me trying to signal boost it, because what he said here, every second of it is absolutely amazing. And I hope that you will show his speech to your relatives. I hope that you show it to people and understand that if they acknowledge the power that they have, if they understand that they alone can organize their entire workplace, this country could actually move in a different, more positive direction.