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Hi,
Just before Amazon workers were reportedly threatened with job termination if they fled killer tornadoes last month, corporate lobbying groups associated directly with Amazon blocked legislation designed to prohibit such firings.1
In other words, when advocates tried to build in stronger protections for workers, Amazon's lobbyists stepped in and stopped the same legislation that could have protected the six Amazon workers who recently died in the wake of tornadoes.
Amazon has a long history of putting its profits before its workers' well-being, but when workers die, we've clearly reached a new level. Sign the petition to tell Congress: Break up Amazon and the big tech companies!
Big Tech corporations like Amazon have too much power in our economy and democracy. It is time to rebalance the scales. We are tired of Big Tech corporations using their outsize power to exploit and disregard workers.
But current laws and enforcement mechanisms have proven insufficient at curtailing the harms resulting from Big Tech's power. That’s why we need Congress to step up and use their power to Break Up Big Tech.
Sign the petition: Congress, Break Up Big Tech!
As Amazon fails to support its own workers, it continues to undercut small businesses and make it more and more difficult for them to succeed.
Small businesses have declined sharply in both numbers and market share across many sectors of the economy, and the number of startups launched annually has fallen by nearly half since the 1970s.
The systematic dismantling of antitrust laws by lawmakers in Congress contributed to much of this decline in small businesses and entrepreneurship. That weakened antitrust enforcement, caused significant concentration in many sectors, and fueled anticompetitive behavior by big corporations using their market power to undermine rivals.
Now, in an era where Amazon has unprecedented power, too many of these small businesses are destroyed or pushed to the limit by Amazon's greed, control of supply chains, and preferencing of its own products. According to a recent report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Amazon keeps taking more from sellers — its cut is now up to 34%, up from 19% in 2014. These steep and growing fees are crushing small businesses, and lead to higher consumer prices across the web.2
Breaking Amazon up means letting businesses compete on the merits of their products and services instead of being subject to Amazon's whims. Together, we can build the pressure needed for Congress to take on Amazon and break up Big Tech.
Add your name: All Members of Congress should cosponsor the bills that would Break Up Big Tech!
Thanks for taking action,
Maria and the team at Demand Progress
Sources:
1. The Daily Poster, "Worker Protection Bill Blocked Before Tornado Disaster," December 13, 2021.
2. Institute for Local Self-Reliance, "New Report: Amazon's Fees on Small Businesses Have Soared," December 1, 2021.
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