Valuetainment - “Amazon Is DESPICABLE” - Teamsters Sean O’Brien BLASTS Bezos & Big Tech Exploitation

00:00:00.000 who was the enemy who is the enemy or was the enemy well there's a lot of enemies out there i

00:00:04.920 mean uh i'm talking specific to a teamster president or member who's the enemy so when i

00:00:10.640 was growing up the enemy in 1980 was the legislatures who introduced and passed bipartisan

00:00:19.380 deregulation of the trucking industry that's the 400 000 jobs 400 000 jobs yeah so that was the

00:00:25.080 enemy back then and it was funny people weren't calling out politicians back then you know they

00:00:30.180 weren't calling anybody out it was like these are the most powerful people they get to do what they

00:00:34.360 want my thought process is we're the most powerful people we provide the goods and services we keep

00:00:41.140 america moving and had if we if i was able to roll this i don't want to wish my life away but had i

00:00:47.700 been in a position i was now in 1980 when that happened i would have been fighting and kicking

00:00:53.400 and screaming in the streets about how bad this is for working people how bad it was for the team

00:00:58.660 at congress at the senate i mean got it they they introduced this legislation i mean the kennedy is

00:01:04.460 so prevalent in massachusetts uh ted kennedy introduced the language introduced the bill

00:01:09.800 bipartisan bill joe biden was the senator signed off on it you know and and so that was i my opinion back

00:01:16.300 then that was the enemy the enemy now is corporate america um and not all of them but you know the

00:01:22.380 corporations like amazon amazon for instance i mean they they are despicable on what they do to

00:01:28.020 working people they're despicable how they treat their people and you know that's probably the

00:01:32.840 biggest enemy we have right now so today your number one enemy would be amazon 100 and and what

00:01:38.140 would you like to see with amazon because i know amazon was trying to go to new york they were going to

00:01:41.540 bring 25 000 jobs and an average salary of 150 aoc wasn't for it de blasio wasn't for it

00:01:49.100 andrew cuomo was like listen guys let them come here eventually bezos backed out and took those

00:01:54.880 25 000 jobs to a different place so but those 25 000 jobs aren't real jobs they're not careers

00:01:59.820 like you look at a company like ups which we fight with constantly but you know we we have a

00:02:05.300 collective bargaining relationship but there's 340 000 people that work at ups that do the same job

00:02:11.100 as all these people at amazon you start out part-time then there's an opportunity to go to full-time

00:02:15.960 you're getting free health care because we negotiated pensions you're getting the opportunity

00:02:20.740 to a career path at amazon there's 150 turnover ratio so those 25 000 jobs aren't career jobs are

00:02:28.860 these w2 jobs with amazon or 10 well if you're part-time working inside the facility you're a w2 right

00:02:34.800 but if you're outside delivering packages you're a 1099 independent contractor that's how they're hiding

00:02:40.280 behind you know us going in to organize them but we've had some success organizing the uh third

00:02:47.100 party leasing arrangements which are the the independent contractor model where amazon say

00:02:52.340 hey we have nothing to do with the drivers but you know they'll mandate that the contractors who hire

00:02:56.860 these drivers wear the uniforms buy the vehicles follow the policies and procedures so we got a very

00:03:01.780 favorable decision recently in california that uh recognize that they are there is a there is a direct

00:03:07.580 relationship so let me let me let me unpack this so facebook hired a company that moderated that

00:03:14.300 watched what people were posting online and anytime something would come out and they would say that

00:03:20.060 wasn't really us it's the company that we hired to moderate right and they're the ones that are

00:03:23.600 watching the conversations you're saying amazon hired another company that they gave them the drivers

00:03:31.240 almost like a walmart hiring a transportation company that does the loads so it's not their

00:03:38.060 own i'm just speculating if they did that you're saying those guys should be treated on w2 standards

00:03:45.300 even though they're 1099 yeah absolutely why do you say that that's a little crazy no it's not crazy

00:03:49.360 tell me more it's not crazy at all because look think about it you know you you have these amazon

00:03:55.460 they make you buy the vehicle from them yeah they make the contract they make the drivers wear their

00:04:01.240 uniform they make you buy the vehicle from amazon absolutely okay you have to lease the vehicle from

00:04:05.840 amazon you have to follow the policies and procedures that amazon puts forward you have to wear the

00:04:10.880 uniform you have to basically do everything they tell you but you're not getting a w2 from amazon

00:04:15.160 you're getting the 1099 from uh wherever it's coming from xyz yeah whatever whatever that llc is at that

00:04:22.100 time and it's just a scam to keep the union out and and and protect against liability as well

00:04:29.640 okay so are you saying the 25 000 jobs in new york were those jobs or you you're not sure we

00:04:35.600 weren't sure what they were i mean they probably could have been corporate jobs right uh which you

00:04:39.320 know doesn't help us at all um why why is that well because i mean you're going to put 25 000

00:04:44.980 management people there they're not you know they're not going to be unionized i mean i think what

00:04:48.980 they were trying to do at that time to make amazon a major hub uh and that's where they would develop

00:04:55.080 all their strategies and technologies and everything else so you know i think that's why there was a push

00:05:00.800 by the aocs of the world and saying we don't want them in here because they're really not real jobs for

00:05:05.140 the constituents we represent got it so so then let's go to the conversation with uber and lyft i don't

00:05:10.560 know if you remember i don't know how long ago this was this could have been six years ago five years ago

00:05:14.660 four years ago where there was there was talks about trying to get uber drivers and lyft drivers

00:05:22.600 to get benefits and get paid by the hour and then you know they went all the way out i don't know how

00:05:28.560 far along rob if you want to zoom in i don't uh remember the exact details i mean you know sean i'm

00:05:32.460 sure you got more of it yeah sean uh uber and lyft had recently agreed a landmark california that allows

00:05:37.500 their drivers to unionize a significant departure from their previous stance to fight unionization

00:05:41.920 so in this part what did you guys want to see happen with uber and lyft because i know you had

00:05:47.580 an opinion about this as well yeah we weren't we weren't in favor of this because it's it's it's

00:05:51.940 it's a masquerade i mean it's really not a union they don't have a collective bargaining agreement

00:05:56.440 um and and these people are independent contractors now uber and lyft when they came into the world

00:06:02.660 was it you know they eliminated basically cab drivers right when they came in their biggest play

00:06:07.820 has been all along they want autonomous vehicles so at some point in time you know with all these

00:06:14.280 gavin newsoms of the world and all these people that are supposed to be helping working people

00:06:18.780 uh vetoing uh human operators and vehicles you're gonna see at some point those jobs are gonna go

00:06:26.480 away if they're allowed to you know use the waymos of the world and i think waymo just recently

00:06:30.840 partnered up with uber or lyft or one of them um i just saw waymo the other day yeah it's very weird

00:06:35.980 yeah i think there was some sort of uh collaboration right uh with the apps or whatever it is um yeah

00:06:43.380 there you go so so it's a collaboration partnership in phoenix austin and atlanta right so you see waymo

00:06:48.060 you see it in san francisco no drivers i mean if they're allowed to do this they can say they're

00:06:54.040 unionized they can say they're providing insurance but there's no real collective bargaining agreement

00:06:57.960 and who are you negotiating with like when i negotiate a contract i negotiate with ups or cisco

00:07:03.020 or anybody i'm sitting across from the table with the employer these people are still 1099

00:07:08.940 independent contractors who am i sitting across the table from negotiating these contracts who's

00:07:14.620 going to be paying for these benefits and if you talk to any of these uber or lyft drivers which i do

00:07:18.740 all the time they'll tell you how bad it is as far as the split you know as far as they used to get 75

00:07:25.580 percent of the trip now they're like 60 40 in some cases or 50 50 uh so each year they just keep chipping

00:07:33.580 away at the profits that these independent contractors uh making and you know it's a race to the bottom

00:07:39.580 and i don't i don't see how we negotiate or who we negotiate with got it so you you're uh what do you

00:07:47.420 think should happen to a 1099 uber or lyft driver well i think uber and lyft should make them direct

00:07:54.420 employees right that would be tough no they got plenty of money i mean kamala harris's uh brother-in-law

00:08:01.400 what's he like the general counsel there yeah i mean he's a big union guy supposedly he's a big

00:08:06.240 for workers mandate that these people direct employees and then you know you look at it

00:08:10.720 you're gonna have a continuity of the workforce if you make them direct employees how do you do that

00:08:15.300 though walk me through how you do that all they do is have to purchase the vehicles off the people

00:08:19.380 that are on the uber app right now make them direct employees sit down and bargain right but let's just

00:08:25.920 say if i'm somebody that wants to uber for one hour a month well you can always negotiate the terms

00:08:31.520 and conditions and the schedules and everything else you're talking about the flexibility yeah no what

00:08:36.600 if i i don't want to be under a union what if i'm a driver and i don't want to be controlled by a

00:08:41.140 union i don't want i want to be able to do whatever i want to do i don't want a w2 uh

00:08:44.980 uh salary i want it to be 1099 because a lot of people also don't want to be part of it nowadays

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Valuetainment - October 12, 2025

“Amazon Is DESPICABLE” - Teamsters Sean O’Brien BLASTS Bezos & Big Tech Exploitation

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