Two New York unions are teaming up to deliver a message to retail giant Amazon: labor is still king in Queens.
In a letter sent Monday to Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, leaders from The Teamsters and the retail workers union asked that New York’s $3 billion deal with global corporation be put on hold in light of Amazon’s “anti-worker” history.
Not a penny of public funds should go to the trillion-dollar online titan until it commits to a fair process for Amazon workers in Queens to unionize, the labor leaders demanded. The letters went out just ahead of a planned City Council hearing Wednesday on the financing of the Amazon deal — the second of its four scheduled discussions on the controversial agreement.
“The growth of Amazon and its low-pay jobs is a direct threat to New York workers in the core industries of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,” said the letter obtained by the Daily News.