Amazon pulling out of New York is a victory for New Yorkers. Now Congress should examine its monopolistic actions.

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: February 16, 2019 at 7:47:50 AM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Amazon pulling out of New York is a victory for New Yorkers. Now Congress should examine its 
> monopolistic actions.
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Amazon pulling out of New York is a victory for New Yorkers. Now Congress should examine its monopolistic actions.
> People are fed up with big corporations bullying their employees and our elected officials. They're going to keep 
> fighting back.
> By Zephyr Teachout
> Feb 16 2019
> <https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/amazon-pulling-out-new-york-victory-new-yorkers-now-congress-ncna971806>
>
> The decision by Amazon to stop pursuing $3 billion in financial incentives from New York to locate its "HQ2" in the 
> state was one of most startling corporate about-faces in recent memory, and biggest shows of grassroots power over a 
> massive corporation, a plethora of industry lobbyists and government officials.
>
> Why did it come to this? In short, people are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it any more.
>
> As a society, we are at an inflection point when it comes to both corporate welfare and monopoly power. Decades of 
> the race to the bottom and corporate subsidies failing to deliver well-paying jobs — just look at the failed FoxxConn 
> deal in Wisconsin or the constant shuffle of low-wage temp jobs in Ellwood, Ill. — have made the typical promises of 
> a corporate welfare deal feel less real. The sheer scope of the Amazon incentive package felt abusive and obscene, 
> especially when the state is facing a $2.3 billion budget shortfall.
>
> Mom and pop shops paying taxes while Amazon got billions just to come to town didn't seem right, and, post-FoxxConn, 
> people are less likely to fall for the promised jobs numbers. Corporate welfare is finally getting the black eye it 
> always deserved.
>
> Meanwhile, the outsized subsidies offered without New Yorkers' knowledge or input put Amazon into a situation in 
> which they were suddenly getting daily scrutiny not just into the deal, but into all their business practices. People 
> who never heard that Amazon pursued a contract with ICE for facial recognition software were suddenly hearing about 
> it at work. Workers who use Amazon Prime, but hadn’t realized how anti-union Amazon is suddenly didn’t like what they 
> were hearing. And millions of people who never heard the word monopolies before were suddenly hearing about how 
> Amazon abuses and squeezes its sellers, because the sellers feel have few other options than to use Amazon's service, 
> or that it takes their customers' ideas to compete against them. This once much-loved company (last year, it was one 
> of the most loved companies by Democrats) was suddenly being revealed for what it was.
>
> Amazon’s outsized power is looking less and less like smart business and more and more like oppressive politics — one 
> company bullying us all. And the spotlight the deal brought to the company wasn't good for it overall.
>
> Of course, some of the reason that Amazon pulled out of the deal with New York was purely tactical: They were 
> probably about to lose it anyway. State Senator Mike Gianaris was appointed to the state's Public Authorities Control 
> Board this month, where he would have veto power over substantial parts of the Amazon subsidy package. Gianaris, who 
> representing the Queens district in which Amazon planned to locate, was an outspoken critic of the deal based on its 
> potential impact on rents and transportation, as well as Amazon’s anti-union, ICE-enabling history.
>
> Gianaris wasn’t accidentally placed on the board by the new state Senate majority leader, and the subsidies weren’t 
> coincidentally under scrutiny: He was placed there because of enormous grassroots opposition to the deal that sprang 
> up almost as immediately as the elected officials behind it made its terms public. Left wing Democrats and Democratic 
> socialists began grassroots organizing in Queens against the deal; stories of Amazon warehouse workers peeing in 
> bottles because of workplace demands weren’t just shared in press releases, but at grassroots meetings. Most of the 
> state's labor unions were initially opposed to the project, because Amazon wouldn’t commit to union neutrality in New 
> York (though they werehashing out a deal on that immediately prior to Amazon's pulling out).
>
> So, when Cory Johnson, the New York City Council speaker, grilled Amazon at a hearing in December, he was cheered by 
> hundreds of activists in the balcony carrying “Amazon Lies” banners.
>
> Amazon's capitulation to those opposed to their expansion in New York City is an epic moment for people power over an 
> enormous corporate bully. But, when you beat a bully, you have to be sure not to let him get away with it somewhere 
> else; this, then, is just the beginning of pushing back on the unfettered growth of corporate power. That same 
> grassroots that demanded an end to a sweetheart deal for a one of the largest companies in the world will be part of 
> the demand for a congressional hearing into Amazon's near-monopolistic powers.
>
> [snip]
>
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> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



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