Dear John,
Valentine’s Day marks the 1 year anniversary of Amazon's decision to cancel HQ2 in the face of workers and communities standing up to their attempts to bully our neighborhoods. But Amazon desperately wants to be here in New York City, and is continuing to expand by adding new office space and warehouses. So we’re going to continue challenging Amazon’s abuses of workers and communities.
Amazon is using its monopoly power to create a race to the bottom in our economy where Bezos wins and workers and communities lose. That’s dangerous, wrong, and must change.
That is why, this Friday, February 14th, we are standing up for good jobs, clean air, freedom from surveillance, and demanding that Congress break up Amazon.
The best way to transform Amazon is by breaking it up into a smaller corporation that can be held accountable by workers, communities, elected officials. Workers and communities are fed up with how Amazon treats us.
Warehouse workers in Amazon’s Staten Island Fulfillment Center are organizing against dangerous working conditions, lack of breaks, and the grueling pace of work.
Black and brown communities are bearing the brunt of Amazon’s distribution centers, adding congestion and traffic in neighborhoods already on the frontlines of pollution and climate change.
Our families, friends, and neighbors are targeted with the help of Amazon’s massive surveillance infrastructure used by police and homeland security to help track, detain, deport, and jail us.
Small local businesses are rapidly closing in the face of e-commerce and the monopolization of retail, allowing one man–Jeff Bezos–to influence the lives of millions of people.
Our public wealth and resources are extracted by a trillion dollar corporation to meet its goal of $1 billion dollars in subsidies from state and local governments every year, at a time when our communities need more affordable housing, improved public transit systems, and fully funded public education.
From New York, to Virginia, to Nashville, to Seattle and everywhere in between it is clear that Amazon's monopoly power is harming our communities. Join us 9 a.m. on Valentine’s Day in Hudson Yards as we march to #BreakUpAmazon.
From,
Chio Valerio-Gonzalez
Campaign Director
ALIGN NY
