 So last weekend, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Grotez attended an Amazon Union drive with Union organizer Chris Smalls, who I've got to say is one of the most amazing, most influential people in American politics currently. And what I like is that even though it is the case, as Chris Smalls has explained before, that having support from lawmakers isn't necessarily going to make or break these union efforts, it still is really important to use them as allies because they have power and influence that no one individual organizer is going to have. So Bernie Sanders knows that standing in solidarity with labor means, you also have to do more than show up. You have to demand action. Use your platform as a U.S. Senator to demand action. So in a nearly 20 minute long speech on the Senate floor where Bernie Sanders railed against Jeff Bezos and Amazon for the whole time, which was excellent, by the way, he explained in great detail the ways in which Amazon has violated a lot of labor laws and they've been guilty of union busting. They've been caught numerous times. So what Bernie Sanders is now doing is calling on the Biden administration to punish Amazon in a very deliberate way for their union busting behavior. But before we get to what Bernie Sanders is calling on Joe Biden to do and how he wants Biden to punish Amazon, I want to just let you see what Bernie Sanders says about the union union busting from Amazon. Because if you haven't been following this story, the ways in which they violated union laws, labor laws is truly, I mean, they've done everything, right? So take a look at the way that Bernie Sanders breaks it down here. From the very beginning of the union organizing effort until today, Mr. Bezos and his company have done everything possible, legal and illegal to defeat the union effort. In fact, Amazon workers, in fact, Amazon cannot even come to grips with the reality that workers in Staten Island won their union election fair and square. In order to stall the process out, Amazon's lawyers have appealed that election result to the NLRB. Their strategy as is often the strategy of corporate interests confronting unions is to use their incredible resources, their unending amount of money to stall, stall and stall. In every way possible, Amazon is refusing to negotiate a fair first contract with the Amazon labor union. In fact, Amazon has been engaged in a massive attempt to undermine the union organizing drive in direct violation of labor laws and regulations. Let's be clear, Amazon has already been penalized more than 75 million dollars for breaking federal discrimination and labor laws. Amazon is currently being sued by the National Labor Relations Board to reinstate a workup who was illegally fired for organizing a union. To date, there are currently 59 unfair labor cases against Amazon pending at the National Labor Relations Board. Several current and former employees at Amazon have alleged that the company has engaged in illegal harassment and discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation. Amazon misclassifies delivery drivers as independent contractors rather than employees in order to evade tax, wage and benefit responsibilities. Amazon's inadequate workplace safety policies also pose grave risks to workers. If you can believe it, and this really is quite unbelievable, according to a New York Times investigation, Amazon warehouses have a 150% turnover rate. 150% a year. Workers come into the warehouses, they are worked as hard as humanly possible, and then after they are exhausted and physically broken down, they leave. And then a whole new set of workers comes in and the process continues. Further, in some locations, their workplace injury rates are more than two and a half times the industry average. I was in Staten Island on Sunday talking to some Amazon workers and they tell me that injuries take place every single day. And many of them go unreported. Last December, six Amazon workers died after they were required to continue working during unsafe weather conditions in a warehouse that did not have appropriate safety facilities or policies. So they have explicitly broken the law again and again and again. But yet, even though they've broken the law, even though they've been guilty of union busting, well, they're getting rewarded by the government by very lucrative contracts. And that's not acceptable. So Bernie Sanders has a very simple solution. He's calling on Joe Biden to nix all of these contracts. And that is going to cost Amazon billions and billions of dollars. You see, it's easy to pay a couple of million here and there if you violate labor laws. But when, you know, you cost them billions of dollars, that's going to get them to pay attention, I guarantee it. So here's some highlights from Bernie Sanders open letter to President Biden. Dear President Biden, last September, I was delighted to hear you state that you intend to be the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history. As you will recall, during the presidential campaign, you promised to institute a multi-year federal debarment for all employers who illegally oppose unions and to ensure federal contracts only go to employers who sign neutrality agreements committing not to run anti-union campaigns. That campaign promise was exactly right. Today, I am asking you to fulfill that promise. Since 2004, Amazon has received thousands of federal contracts worth billions of dollars. The Washington Post, also owned by Mr. Bezos, reported that Amazon is in line to receive a cloud contract from the National Security Agency worth up to $10 billion, a contract that it should not receive as long as it continues to violate labor laws. Another Bezos own company, Blue Origin, may also receive a contract from NASA worth up to $10 billion to fly a spaceship to the moon after more than 20 current and former employees alleged that this company repeatedly discriminated against workers and did not adhere to safety protocols. Mr. President, taxpayer dollars should not go to companies like Amazon and multi-billionaires like Jeff Bezos who repeatedly break the law. I urge you to ban companies who break federal labor laws from receiving federal contracts. So this is brilliant for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, this is something that Joe Biden can do unilaterally via executive order. There's no excuse, no Joe Manchin, no Kyrsten Sinema, no parliamentarian. This is something that the president can do by himself. Cancel all federal contracts from Amazon. Second of all, it's brilliant because you are pissing them off. You're cutting into billions in expected revenue for them. That's going to piss off their shareholders most likely. And also it gets them to pay attention, right? Because when they pay millions in fees for federal labor, federal labor law violations, I mean, that's nothing to them. It's like pennies to you and I. But if you get them to lose billions of dollars in expected profit, well, that's a completely different story. Now, Bernie Sanders also spoke about this moment in particular and what catalyzed this labor movement that we are seeing, that we haven't seen for decades in this country. And I think he nails it here. He explains that really this comes down to the greed of these oligarchs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. While everyone was suffering, working during a pandemic, risking their own asses, these oligarchs got richer. They have yachts, 25 bedroom mansions. So they're so brazen. They're so out in the open about how shameless they are and they still refuse to pay their workers fair wages and treat them well. And that has all culminated in this moment. You can only get away with that greed for so long until it catches up with you and that's what's happening. So Bernie Sanders breaks it down in this clip. Mr. President, during the pandemic last several years, Mr. Bezos, like many other billionaires, did very, very well. In fact, since March of 2020, Mr. Bezos became $65 billion richer in just a couple of years. Huge increase in his wealth. So Mr. President, if you ask me why people in this country are really, really angry, I will tell you. And that has a lot to do with the reality that in the midst of the pandemic, in the midst of the massive economic dislocation that we have seen, we have lost tens of thousands of essential workers. People who lived paycheck to paycheck who had no choice. They had to go into a warehouse. They had to go into a grocery store. They had to drive a bus. They had to do all of the things that keep America going. And as a result of that, having to go to work, thousands of them contracted COVID and many thousands actually died. And that's what happens when you are an ordinary worker in America living paycheck to paycheck. You don't have a choice. You have got to go to work to feed your family. And during that same period, the billionaires and Mr. Bezos made out like bandits, Bezos himself became $65 billion richer. Mr. President, Jeff Bezos has enough money to own a $500 million yacht. $500 million yacht. He has enough money to afford a $175 million estate in Beverly Hills. He has enough money to afford a $78 million, 14-acre estate in Maui. He has enough money to own a $23 million mansion right here in Washington, DC, which has 25 bathrooms. So if you're in Washington, DC and you have to go to the bathroom, you know some place that you can possibly go. Mr. Bezos has enough money to buy a rocket ship to blast William Shatner to the edge of outer space. And yet, even though Mr. Bezos can afford all of these mansions and his $500 million yacht and his rocket ship, Mr. Bezos refuses to pay his workers at Amazon decent wages, decent benefits, or provide decent working conditions. And that, Mr. President, is what excessive greed is all about. And that is why the American people are saying enough is enough. Yeah, I mean, billionaires have just become too comfortable in this country. They thought that they can exploit their workers in ruthless ways and then reward themselves with mansions and $500 million yachts and just throw all that wealth in their workers' faces and get away with it. I mean, you have workers risking their lives. Multiple Amazon employees died during the pandemic and they still won't treat them well, won't pay them a living wage, won't actually offer them benefits. It's, I mean, what do they expect honestly, right? I mean, we're all kind of surprised that this labor movement has come back and it's stronger than ever. But I mean, I felt like this was almost an inevitability because of how brazen these billionaire pigs have gone. So look, Bernie Sanders is one of the real ones in Congress and the Senate. And I really appreciate him doing this. Will Joe Biden actually respond? Who knows? But the fact that you have a very popular United States Senator telling him to do this thing which is logical if Biden actually is going to put his money where his mouth is, we'll see. So yeah, I'll keep you updated on this story. If Biden does choose to listen to Bernie Sanders, he absolutely should if he does want to be the most pro-union president in American history.