Amazon’s Jay Carney Goes After Bernie Sanders Over Vermont Senator Blasting Company for Working Conditions

Last week Senator Bernie Sanders went to Bessemer, Alabama to meet with Amazon workers fighting to unionize. Sanders said in his speech that “the reason that Amazon is putting so much energy to try to defeat you is they know that if you succeed here, it will spread all over this country.”

Prior to his visit, an Amazon executive publicly went after Sanders, and in the past week the Amazon News Twitter account has been aggressively combative.

On Monday Sanders posted a video on the unionizing Alabama workers and tweeted, “Amazon workers in Alabama are sick and tired of being treated like robots. They are standing up and fighting back, and I am proud to support them.”

Amazon workers in Alabama are sick and tired of being treated like robots. They are standing up and fighting back, and I am proud to support them. pic.twitter.com/lOuBL8oJK2

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 30, 2021

Sanders’ video included parts of what Amazon workers directly told Sanders when he met with them.

The video garnered a response from Jay Carney, senior vice president of Global Corporate Affairs at Amazon. If Carney’s name sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because he was press secretary for former President Barack Obama for a few years.

Carney responded to Sanders’ video by tweeting, “With all due respect, Senator @BernieSanders, you’re wrong on this. We treat our employees with dignity and respect. We offer a $15 min wage, health care from day one, and a safe, inclusive workplace.”

He added that Sanders should be pushing to raise the federal minimum wage.

2/2 Once again, we invite you to take a tour so you can see for yourself. And since there are 40m Americans earning less than Amazon’s starting wage, we ask you and your colleagues to please raise the federal minimum to $15 as well.

— Jay Carney (@JayCarney) March 30, 2021

Carney’s tweets got the response you might expect:

hi, jay. good tweets. but you may have noticed that in the video you’re sharing (thanks, btw) the senator is speaking directly with workers at the bessemer warehouse who are sick and tired of not being treated with the dignity they deserve.

— mike casca (@cascamike) March 30, 2021

With all due respect, @JayCarney, this article makes clear that Amazon doesn't treat some of its workers with respect or tolerance.https://t.co/QdNQOb4Op8

— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) March 30, 2021

If you cared about your workers' dignity, you wouldn't be scheming to undermine their efforts to collectively bargain for better working conditions and smear them when they do.

— Happy Amazon Employee (@dellcam) March 30, 2021