Bernie just got 350,000 low wage workers a pay raise
I mean the STOP BEZOS Act is stupid, but no one cares about that.
— Armando (@armandodkos) September 12, 2018
No matter how you cut it, this comes down to Bernie Sanders and hundreds of labor activists shaming the richest man on the planet into doing the right thing.
The world’s richest man has caved to pressure from his workers, activists, and Bernie Sanders and raised the minimum wage at Amazon to $15.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Tuesday that, after fielding much criticism, the company would increase the baseline of its workers’ wages — affecting about 350,000 employees, including people who work at Whole Foods — and lobby for a $15 minimum wage nationwide. The federal minimum wage is currently just $7.25.
“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” Bezos said in a statement. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has personally taken on Amazon as an example of worker exploitation by powerful companies in the United States. In September, Sanders introduced the “Stop Bad Employers Zeroing Out Subsidies Act” (aka the Stop BEZOS Act) that would penalize large companies if their workers are relying on government benefits like food stamps or Medicaid to survive.
Sanders commended Bezos for the decision to raise the minimum wage at Amazon.
Gee, I wonder who those "critics" were?
The wages will still be low, but the raise is very significant.
The median Amazon employee makes $28,446 annually, according to the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Excluding part-timers and workers in other countries brings the median above $34,000, the firm has said.
Do you think that Bernie just got himself about a half million dedicated, die-hard supporters/voters?
Yeh, I think so.
Before I move on, let's take a moment to recall how the Democratic Establishment thought about Bernie's STOP BEZOS bill.
Bloomberg: Bernie Sanders Picks the Wrong Kind of Fight With Amazon
The senator seems more focused on embarrassing the online giant than helping its workers.
DailySignal: Bernie Sanders’ Misguided Amazon Bill Would Backfire on Workers
USAToday: In Bernie Sanders vs. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, only workers lose
LATimes: Liberals should stop attacking Bernie Sanders for targeting Jeff Bezos and Amazon. He's on the right track
One would think that Democrats and progressives would praise Sanders for this legislative initiative. After all, Amazon’s employment of low-wage workers, its baleful influence on communities and the punishing working conditions in the warehouses from which its merchandise is shipped to customers have been amply documented. Instead, they’ve turned their fire hoses full-blast on Sanders himself. The drawbacks of his proposal have been picked apart to a fare-thee-well by some of the nation’s leading progressive think tanks, including the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Comments
Please stop listening to
that independent senator, Bernie Sanders. He's not a rethug, nor a dim, so he has no credibility.
JUST STOP LISTENING TO THAT DAMN SOCIALIST!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Really!
Though the bill has yet to pass, some are paying attention:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
@Raggedy Ann
So Bezos is now the good guy
he needs this to be the first shot
how about MFA, Student Debt, etc.etc.etc
and don't support the military.
This hasn't changed jack shit in who and
what he is.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
No argument there
I just posted it because it shows Bezos giving Bernie the credit. I noticed there were some on DKos that didn't want to give Bernie any credit.
Quite a few kos kids trying to discredit Bernie
I had fun. Anyone who said something bad about Herheinous were being blocked. Not sure how many blocked me.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Fck you, Armando and the neoliberal
Horse you rode in on.
....
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
On the GOS right now
in Subir's diary about this event.
The kind of change you think of well in advance?
They really are very good at twisting their panties in a bunch when they need to undercut Bernie's socialist principles, aren't they? The thing is, with their panties twisted around their ankles, they're just a lot of dead weight falling flat on the floor. Much like their theories.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I think sometimes . . .
. . . of the life forms that the world really could be better without, critters that serve no beneficial purpose that I can discern. Rats, fleas, lampreys, mosquitoes, black flies, cockroaches. And then Armando raises his head, and I realize I missed one.
That's an insult to rats, fleas, and roaches
At least they can serve a useful purpose.
I can think of another DK alum
you could add to your list. This one is from Brooklyn.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
BBB was banned long ago n/t
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Why? Too reasonable or too independent?
BBB and I had an interesting exchange. I told him Hillary would never get elected, and I would dance on her grave. When it happened, I went back to his page to gloat. To his credit, he remained non-violent and kept the gangs away while we exchanged words. Bet that pissed off the whole place.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
@dkmich
If one terms being a total asshat "too independent", I guess that could be one answer.
I'm sorry to see that c99 is down on Subir. I think his diaries at TOP are well written. I haven't purchased his novel yet, but it's on my holiday list.
One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson
C99 isn't down on him,
just a few individuals are.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I'm not down on Subir, either.
Around the 2016 NY Primary we were both volunteering for Bernie. We were in touch personally and attempted to get together. Just missed meeting each other at a Harlem location.
Haven't been on touch with him for some time. But I think he's good people. Despite his appeal to folks to vote Dem in the Presidential election (which seemed to me like it was born mostly out of what he correctly perceived to be elevated racism coming to the fore and concern for his own brown children) I think he's pretty much down with the gist of what we're saying here. I could be wrong having not read him in a while (haven't seen his name at TPW in some time). But I don't think he's a Neoliberal dupe.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
This might help explain...
To My Friends on the Left: Hillary Clinton Is Not the Enemy
some of the lingering criticism.
Or as I like to call the comment section: "c99's Finest Hour".
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
@dance you monster You also missed
You also missed hydrilla and Jeff Bezos.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
They are the masters of the universe and elections
Just ask them.
WhOA!! don't pick on Armando,
He's just a smug corp-0-RAT elitist fuck!
jeez, what next, ya gonna get personal?
rmm.
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
I remember Armando...
tried to get me banned from docudharma for telling him not to race bait.
We went round and round for quite awhile until he finally copped to it.
Then he wanted to be my friend.
I told him to fuck off.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
I guess obscenely rich greedy assholes
Can be shamed by public pressure into doing the right thing? Who knew? Never mind the "warnings" by the establishment that helping the workers was actually going to hurt them because reasons. Raising the living wage helps everyone. And we can't have that, can we?
As an aside, I noticed a telling slogan printed on the side of an Amazon delivery box the other day:
"Earth's most customer centered service"
Earth, huh? Gee, he's got modest ambitions, don't he?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Trump Admin y los oligarchs not quite there yet.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I knew.
(sorry, but I did know).
Moral suasion can be very useful in politics. The dems never want to bother with it, though, because they didn't (don't) care about wages. The dems simply want to say, "oh, we can't pass this or we can't pass that, too bad, so sad," making it sound like their hands were completely tied.
Yay, Bernie!!! Yay workers!!!
I hope this causes a yuuuuge cascade of pay increases.
dfarrah
If he did this from the sidelines,
imagine what Bernie could do with the WH. Obama is such a smug pos.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I was just up in Seattle.
New skyscrapers going up all over downtown, they say it's Amazon money.
At the same time, there are people camping all over the place and sleeping rough on the streets. Fucking Bozo could end homelessness in Seattle with what he makes in a week.
Amazon workers should organize and shut the whole thing down 'til they get more money and decent working conditions.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Nailed it. And there is more to the story, of course.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Alms for the poor.
Throughout history, the rich have thrown out pieces of cake to keep the peasants from getting too restless. I wouldn't give Sanders too much credit on this, the overall national and global situation almost requires the super rich to do this, considering how super rich they're getting.
Movements not political parties
Even with the resistance within the democratic party establishment to a $15/hr min. wage, the movement for it grew and could not be stopped. This is Bernie's importance. While he may have given in politically to the democratic party, he did not give in ideologically and policy-wise.
Walmart next.
Sabir, Armando, DailyKos
biggest bunch of stupid asses on the planet. If Sabir shows his ugly face here again, he won't get the benefit of the doubt from me. Bernie has been of more tangible help to people in 18 months than Obama was in 8 freaking years.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Here, here
And he's the only one who is saying that Kavanaugh lied all through his testimony. Haven't heard one other democrat say that. He's all over Twitter with his list of lies. One did ask for an ethics investigation into K's lying about the stolen emails and into something he said in his testimony last Friday. We'll see if the republicans "let" them do it.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Taibbi a few weeks ago had a good piece explaining Bernie's move
Bernie Sanders’ Anti-Amazon Bill Is an Indictment of the Media, Too: In going after Jeff Bezos, Bernie Sanders tries to shame the press into seeing a problem hiding in plain sight
That's called using your pulpit, in this case his gravitas as the most popular (by far) politician, to call attention to not just the issue of severe economic disparity/greed/wealth plundering through monopoly and Amazon, but to the fact that the media refuses to cover the issues most people want covered.
His townhalls have been excellent examples of becoming the media. He's been giving platforms to those doing the hard organizing activist work and those with brutal stories to tell.
This could be the start of a very powerful coalition, i.e. Bernie using his profile to put pressure by focusing attention on a very specific target and coordinating with grassroots organizers and activists to get out in the streets and engage in civil disobedience/strikes/
Speaking of, anybody see this today? #PovertyDoesntFly, a global airport workers strike.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Good article
Good point. Let's see if anyone starts doing it.
I'd like to see the people who are going out on strikes to coordinate with each other and do it together. Get more of businesses down to a crawl or shut down and start hitting their profits. I'm not sure if this will work or not, but what else can people do to tell them that they will no longer accept slave wages.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
The pigs will retaliate.
Happens every time.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
In the meantime people are getting paid more
I'm sure that they are happy for that.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Yay!!! nt
dfarrah
I've heard that Bezos paid for this raise
by taking away his workers' productivity bonuses and stock awards. It sounds like the whole thing is a wash, giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
He's gotten a big PR coup though.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
If he did, it will come out - everywhere.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
You would be correct.
I read it on World Socialist though and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any MSM source to jump on that anytime soon. Not saying here, of course, that you would even view the MSM but I think you get my gist.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Kinda like Walmart?
After Trump’s tax cut they announced raises...and then shuttered a bunch of Sam’s Clubs.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.