April 24, 2022

'The Time Is Now to Stand Up to Our Oligarchy,' Sanders Tells Amazon Workers on Eve of Union Vote

On a day billed as "Solidarity Sunday," Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visited Amazon workers in New York City less than 24 hours before they start casting ballots on whether to form a union, after which Sanders departed to Richmond, Virginia to talk with Starbucks workers who have been organizing coffee shops around the nation.

Voting at Amazon's 1,500-employee LDJ5 facility—located across the street from the JFK8 warehouse that made history just three weeks ago by becoming the first of the e-commerce giant's U.S. workplaces to unionize—is set to begin on April 25.

"If [Jeff] Bezos can afford a $500 million yacht," Sanders (I-Vt.) said, referring to the company's billionaire founder in a video promoting Sunday's event, "he can afford to pay his workers at Amazon decent wages, decent benefits, and provide good working conditions."

Speaking from a stage in Staten Island, Sanders told Amazon workers that they are "sending a message to every worker in America that the time is now to stand up to our oligarchy, to stand up to this excessive corporate greed, and create an economy that works for all, not just a few."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/04/24/time-now-stand-our-oligarchy-sanders-tells-amazon-workers-eve-union-vote?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1650837015

April 23, 2022

Native Americans warn of voter suppression in Western states

Native American rights groups say a host of new Republican-backed bills that restrict or limit common voter registration and absentee ballot practices threaten to disenfranchise thousands of tribal citizens.

Many of the laws that have passed in recent years, driven by Republicans who have used former President Trump’s false claims about his 2020 loss as cover for a campaign against broader voter access, will take a disproportionate toll on Native American voters, those groups say, because those voters are disproportionately older, rural and impoverished.

“Structural barriers are impacting Native people’s abilities to vote,” said Allison Neswood, a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. “We felt like Native issues were being both misunderstood and overlooked at the state level, even by voting rights advocates because our populations can be small.”

Neswood’s group, along with the ACLU and Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic, led a challenge to two Montana laws passed by the Republican-dominated legislature earlier this year they said would directly impact the Native American vote.

https://thehill.com/news/state-watch/3459240-native-americans-warn-of-voter-suppression-in-western-states/