From Jason Del Ray's "Amazon started a Twitter war because Jeff Bezos was pissed" posted Sunday evening:
Snarky tweets targeting Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren came after the CEO told execs they weren’t pushing back hard enough on critics.
1/3 I welcome @SenSanders to Birmingham and appreciate his push for a progressive workplace. I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace https://t.co/Fq8D6vyuh9
— Dave Clark (@davehclark) March 24, 2021
Or this?
This is extraordinary and revealing. One of the most powerful politicians in the United States just said she’s going to break up an American company so that they can’t criticize her anymore. https://t.co/Nt0wcZo17g
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
My take: Amazon executives like SVP Dave Clark are bred tough. They may think such behavior is on brand. Del Ray's theory is that they're melting down, panicking over the upcoming union vote.
Not a big deal, but Amazon drivers have been known to pee in bottles. See here.
As Harry Truman once said: “If you can’t handle the heat get out of the kitchen.” This insatiable quest by Elizabeth Warren to “Break Up Big Tech” is as misguided a policy as is her unbridled rhetoric.
Again, I’m not against investigating legitimate concerns into any industry that might be in violation of the law. However, any politician who can’t tolerate harsh or salty comments from a social media platform ought to spend some time in a military or law enforcement academy to better expand on their understanding of how constructive criticism really works.
The “…heat of the kitchen” argument surely applies also to corporate executives.
No amount of heat justifies lying. Or are we supposed to accept that deflection and manipulation of the truth is a basic bodily function for a corporate PR department.
Uh, yeah. Also a bodily function for politicians.
Amazon also needs thicker skin.
Continue…..
Within the industrialized nations, Unions have been the most powerful force in building social protections; not just for their own members but for all society. Labor unions give greater bargaining power to workers, expansion of educational opportunities & government subsidized housing giving working class Americans access to a wealth building asset. Union members pay dues to unite for mutual economic survival. Labor was the backbone of the development of social democracy in Western Europe, North America, Oceania and other outposts of modern capitalism. In the US, labor unions remain the core electoral support of the Democratic Party. Jeff Bezos helped open the floodgates for increased social democracy & now he must be willing to accept it graciously.