Amazon is among the largest and strongest entities on the planet. However this week it bizarrely acquired into a really petulant public Twitter fight with two prime politicians.
The Twitter spat started with information that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is planning to satisfy with Amazon employees in Alabama to assist their unionization effort. Dave Clark, Amazon’s worldwide client CEO, goaded Sanders by citing Amazon’s $15-an-hour beginning wage for example of how Amazon is already a “progressive” office. In response to Clark, Democratic Consultant Mark Pocan of Wisconsin tweeted that “doesn’t make you a ‘progressive office’ whenever you union-bust & make employees urinate in water bottles.”
Stories that Amazon supply employees or contractors have resorted to urinating in bottles as a result of they’re pressured for productiveness and worry taking toilet breaks are usually not new. In reality, they go back years. However Pocan’s tweet set somebody off at Amazon, as a result of the verified @amazonnews Twitter account—which says it’s “the official account for information about @amazon”—replied to him with a confrontational message: “You don’t actually imagine the peeing in bottles factor, do you? If that had been true, no one would work for us.”
Why Amazon would need to amplify this story and be sure that it stays in the Twitter dialog is unclear, however it solely acquired worse after that. The Intercept has since reported on an Amazon inner memo that apparently confirms the follow (and the corporate’s considerations about it).
Pricey lord. https://t.co/BLdFCwkfTm pic.twitter.com/obvdMpKyy3
— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) March 25, 2021
We’ve reached out to Amazon for touch upon this and can replace if we hear again.
In the meantime, @amazonnews’ rants weren’t even finished for the day. The Amazon Twitter account additionally turned confrontational with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts when she condemned Amazon for exploiting “loopholes and tax havens to pay near nothing in taxes.” Amazon shot again by saying Warren makes the tax legal guidelines, the corporate simply follows them.
1/3 You make the tax legal guidelines @SenWarren; we simply comply with them. Should you don’t just like the legal guidelines you’ve created, by all means, change them. Listed below are the information: Amazon has paid billions of {dollars} in company taxes over the previous few years alone.
— Amazon Information (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
Warren wasn’t having it. In a follow-up tweet, she threw the gauntlet down towards Amazon, saying the corporate’s personal legal professionals and lobbyists wrote “the loopholes you exploit.”
I didn’t write the loopholes you exploit, @amazon – your armies of legal professionals and lobbyists did. However you wager I’ll fight to make you pay your fair proportion. And fight your union-busting. And fight to interrupt up Large Tech so that you’re not highly effective sufficient to heckle senators with snotty tweets. https://t.co/3vCAI93MST
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 26, 2021
Maybe by that point, whoever was tweeting from @amazonnews realized the questionable optics of one of many world’s strongest firms participating in a aggressive public Twitter fight with lawmakers who’re making an attempt to carry tech giants to account. Amazon didn’t reply to Warren’s remaining tweet.
