There's a lot of anger out there.
And I'm gonna give you one number that might explain that part of
the equation here.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy,
his total compensation last year topped $212 million.
So if you compare that pay to the average worker, it's 1 to 6500.
So, there's a lot of anger that hey, we're doing everything for your company.
And we just want more.
We want a bigger piece of the pie.
>> We want more representation.
>> It's not anger, Lauren.
>> [CROSSTALK] Jealousy, that's what it is.
>> Stuart Varney is about to make a dumb argument about why Amazon
workers in New York decided to unionize.
Let's watch.
>> I've seen it before.
I grew up in a jealous country.
England always worried about how much they're making up there.
And how much we're not making down here.
>> That's what you get in a socialist society.
>> So then you wouldn't wanna unionize.
You would want to make everything possible for you to work hard and
get to where you wanna be.
And not have a union get in the way?
>> That's not the way they see it obviously.
But there you go.
>> Isn't it fun watching these well resourced cable news channels pretend like
they don't have the ability to research what the workers wanted to unionize for?
Because they made those reasons abundantly clear.
Both in Bessemer Alabama, and also in New york.
Where the unionization efforts luckily ended up being successful.
And I wanna start off with one video featuring Christian Small.
He's the New York former Amazon worker who actually ended up getting
fired after he led a strike.
Just a short walk out.
Because of the lack of Covid protections at the workplace.
Let's hear what he had to say 2 years ago when these efforts started.
>> Chris what aren't they doing that you want them to be doing?
>> All we asked for was a simple building closure.
And it to be professionally sanitized.
We had a confirmed case and people were afraid.
And that's all we were asking for.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Be able to return to work.
They wouldn't give us that.
>> And that's ridiculous to me.
>> You said you were fired.
When did that happen?
>> Around 4 30 today in the afternoon.
>> They gave me [CROSSTALK] They're claiming that I
violated a quarantine policy, which is ridiculous.
>> I'm appalled by it because I don't know what gives them medical expertise to know
who's supposed to be quarantined and who's not.
They claimed that I came in contact with somebody that was tested positive.
But the person that I sent home, which was my colleague who tested positive,
I was only around her for maybe 2 to 5 minutes.
And thank God I sent her home.
Because the bosses that are still in the building,
they're the ones that allowed her to come back to work.
>> So, Chris Smalls along with his colleagues wanted safer
working conditions.
Because they were considered essential workers who are forced to go into
the warehouses, into their place of work to do their jobs.
They just wanted the appropriate precautions taken to keep themselves safe.
Pretty clear to me Jake.
What do you think?
I mean maybe it's just jealousy.
Let's just chalk it up to jealousy.
They're just jealous.
>> Yeah, so look, they keep insulting their viewers.
I don't know, their Republican viewers so they probably like it.
I don't know maybe it's a fetish.
But I doubt that all their eggs, all the people watching Fox news or
CEOs, or executives, I'm sure there's regular workers too.
And these guys keep saying like what do you need higher wages for?
You're just jealous of the CEO who's better than you.
I mean they almost sound like they're out of a cartoon,
or comic book villain of some sort.
And so, and to your point is is obviously a good one about the real
reasons that they're striking.
And these guys could have looked it up.
And they're obviously demagoguing.
And that's why they don't wanna talk about.
They don't wanna say, hey look, they have real reasons et cetera.
And here's their reasons.
But on the other hand, we think they're just being jealous, right?
No, they don't ever give you the actual facts.
They just go with their caddy theory.
But let's break that down too.
Because I think that was really interesting.
So, these companies are making massive profits.
Especially Amazon.
It's a $1.5 trillion company.
And so, one of the things that the union negotiates for is,
how do you split up that pine when you have massive profits?
How much should go to the executives?
How much should go to labor?
How much should go to all the different categories, right?
And so, that competition between those different categories is exactly
what a union is supposed to do.
If you don't have a union, then the workers are not represented.
And all the money goes to the top instead.
Which is basically what has happened in Amazon.
But Stuart Varney and Fox characterizes all that legitimate fight for
higher wages and it's just being jealous.
And one last thing about that and,
it goes to a mindset that the CEO deserves the money.
>> Exactly.
Right, the CEO at Amazon got $212 million last year, okay?
And Stuart Varney and everybody had 5 things.
Well obviously he deserves that giant paycheck.
But you, when you're arguing for $15 in which you do not deserve it?
Well, how do you know about anything about my work?
You're just jealous.
But wait, maybe I'm a terrific worker.
You don't know.
No, if you're poor, middle class.
Fox hates you.
>> Yeah, and so lemme mention a few things.
Because the points that you're making are indisputable with one exception.
So, Amazon because of the fact that they were pressured by Bernie Sanders
started paying its workers a minimum of $15 an hour.
However, I just wanna make clear that it's not only about the wages,
it's about having an equilibrium.
Or something at least a little closer to an equilibrium of power within
the workplace.
And, in the case of a major corporation,
a massive employer like Amazon, there was no equilibrium.
We're hearing horror stories about delivery drivers defecating in bags,
or urinating in plastic bottles.
We hear all sorts of abusive behavior taking place.
And the way that you are able to negotiate for better working conditions
without being retaliated against is if you have that protection of a union.
Now, Chris Smalls unfortunately didn't have that protection at the time.
Which is why after he demanded certain safety precautions be taken to
protect the workers from Covid, he got fired.
That's what happens.
He had no protection at the time.
And then he dedicated himself to organizing and ensuring that the workers,
his former colleagues, and coworkers would get the protection that they need.
And I'm really happy to see that this is happening now at an Amazon.
At one Amazon place of work.
And luckily we're seeing this start to spread more and
more to other Amazon facilities.
But the other thing I wanted to mention is even if they're getting paid like
the lowest paid employees at amazon getting paid $15 an hour.
You have to take a step back and look at the grand scheme.
How much money Amazon is bringing in.
And how much of that wealth is just going to the very top.
And you mentioned the money being accumulated toward the executives.
Let's not forget the shareholders.
Because the way the system is set up is to ensure that the fiduciary responsibility
for Amazon is to provide a return on investment to the shareholders for Amazon.
And so the people who are literally doing nothing more than investing capital into
Amazon get rewarded much better than the very individuals who are generating
that revenue.
Generating that profit in the first place.
And those are the workers.
So I know you won't hear that explanation on Fox news.
Because they have all the incentives to prevent people from
learning about that context.
But the last time workers in this country were able to build wealth for
themselves to enjoy a comfortable middle class.
It was when they had Union protection.
And unfortunately that has dwindled considerably.
You know, especially since the 1970s.
>> And guys want one last thing here.
I don't want anybody buying into the mythology of either or.
That either you have to give everything to the employees, or
everything to the executives and shareholders.
The reality is of course you could give to the shareholders, executives and
the workers.
Then the question is how much to each?
And that's where a union helps to negotiate that.
So, what does Stuart Varney and Fox want them to do?
Not have a union so they don't get represented?
And if you don't get representative will obviously get less, right?
And the answer is, yeah, that's what they want.
They want you.
You're the average employee.
They want you to get less and the people at the top to get more.
Which is the whole point of Fox.
And the whole point of right wing media is too convince you that the rich getting
everything is exactly as it should be.