Standing Up to Amazon and Corporate Power
THE CRISIS:
Power is in the hands of too few corporations, and our communities are being left behind. Big corporations such as Amazon, Walmart, Facebook, Apple, and Google have rapidly gained power over our economy and government at the expense of workers, small businesses, and the environment. Workers are suffering under low pay and dangerous working conditions while abusive corporations are making record profits. Small businesses are being overrun by abusive corporations. Black and brown New Yorkers are most impacted, bearing the brunt of corporate control over our communities. When big tech corporations bully their way into neighborhoods with generous tax deals, rents skyrocket, leaving tenants and small businesses vulnerable.
THE MOVEMENT:
We’re building coalitions that empower workers, communities, and small businesses to fight for an economy that works for all of us. The New Yorkers for a Fair Economy (NYFE) coalition is fighting to safeguard our communities from abusive practices of big corporations, including Amazon. NYFE was successful in winning two critical warehouse worker safety laws.
Throughout 2019, ALIGN was also part of a large coalition of labor, community, and grassroots organizations that defeated Amazon’s push for a new corporate headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, stopping NYC’s $3 billion corporate giveaway of taxpayer money.
Communities are organizing against Amazon across the country, from California to Missouri to New York. As part of the Athena coalition, we are building a national movement to rein in Amazon’s takeover of our neighborhoods and bring the power back to the hands of workers, small businesses, and our communities.
CURRENT CAMPAIGNS:
Check the Power of Mega-Corporations with the 21st Century Antitrust Act. Mega-corporations like Amazon are using their outsized power to monopolize markets, bury their competition, hurt small businesses, and drive prices up for consumers. We need to fight for a healthy economy that works for everyone, not just the Amazons of the world. We’re fighting for the 21st Century Antitrust Act to combat price gouging, monopoly power, and worker exploitation.
Pass Intro 1330 to protect workers and communities from dangerous warehouse and truck pollution. The e-commerce boom of the last decade produced an unprecedented number of “last-mile” distribution centers — facilities that deliver goods to their final destination. Many of these facilities produce “indirect sources” of harm from not just one source but many — traffic, noise pollution, and emissions from the facilities themselves. Intro 1330 has been introduced in New York City, requiring the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to reduce emissions from indirect sources, such as last mile warehouses.
Contact Deputy Director Lucas Shapiro (lucas@alignny.org) for more information on this campaign.