Amazon Goes On Twitter Offensive Against US Sens. Sanders, Warren Amid Unionization Campaign

Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama are voting on whether to unionize, and the standoff has led to a Twitter feud between Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and two Democratic senators.

• Amazon on Friday shot back at U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for their criticism of the company amid the union campaign.
• Amazon responded to Warren after the senator accused the company of using tax loopholes: "You make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don't like the laws you've created, by all means, change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone."
• Warren replied, "I didn't write the loopholes you exploit — your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did." She added, "You bet I'll fight to make you pay your fair share. And fight your union-busting. And fight to break up Big Tech so you're not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets." 
• Earlier, Warren had criticized Amazon, saying it exploits "loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes. There's a growing mountain of evidence pointing out how Amazon pays very little in taxes compared to its annual sales and profits."
• Amazon also slammed Sanders, who was at the company's Alabama plant on Friday to support workers. During a rally, Sanders attacked Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos, saying: "Why, when you have so much money — more money than can be spent in a million lifetimes — why are you spending millions trying to defeat an effort on the part of workers here who want nothing more than decent wages, decent benefits, decent working conditions?"
• Responding to Sanders, Amazon tweeted, "There's a big difference between talk and action. @SenSanders has been a powerful politician in Vermont for 30 years, and their min wage is still $11.75. Amazon's is $15, plus great health care from day one. Sanders would rather talk in Alabama than act in Vermont."
• The fight between Amazon and members of Congress leaders didn't end there. Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, tweeted at Amazon this week that a $15 wage alone doesn't make a good workplace "when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles." 
• Amazon responded to Pocan by tweeting, "You don't really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us."

Employees of the company's Alabama plant are voting in a mail-in election on whether to unionize. The vote is scheduled to end on Monday. 

Photo courtesy Amazon.