Here in New York, about 1,500 Amazon workers in Staten Island begin voting today on whether to join the Amazon Labor Union. On April 1, workers at an adjacent warehouse voted to form the first-ever unionized Amazon workplace in the United States. Progressive lawmakers including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders joined a union rally on Sunday, ahead of today’s vote. This is New York Democratic Socialist Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “If you can go to space, you can give our workers a bathroom break. Ain’t that right? If you can go to space, you can make sure that you’re treating people well and giving them solid healthcare benefits, that they don’t have a three-hour commute to and from work, that they can afford the house that they can live in, that people don’t have to be sleeping in their cars in order to work for Amazon. All of this is an indignity and an injustice, and that has no place in New York City. And we’re going to change that, and right here our workers out here are going to change that.”