THAT’S BULL-SHIP!
Pols, unions outraged over Amazon deal
Elected officials and union members Wednesday ripped the city and state plan to give Amazon and its megarich owner $3 billion in tax breaks and grants — not to mention a private helipad — in exchange for bringing a new headquarters to Long Island City, Queens.
“It may be cold outside, but I am steaming-mad that the governor and the mayor have decided to throw Jeff Bezos almost $3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks, and throw in a helipad so he doesn't have to take the damn 7 train,” City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the area that would be home to the headquarters, said.
Van Bramer gathered with about 100 people to protest the deal, which was announced Tuesday by Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo, and noted that Bezos would be landing his whirlybird at a taxpayersubsidized helipad just a stone's throw from the Queensbridge Houses, a public housing development.
“We have a public housing crisis. Just this morning, several residents contacted us to say there's no heat in Queensbridge,” Van Bramer said. “But somehow folks who consider themselves progressive Democrats have seen fit to throw $3 billion to the richest man in the world.”
Protesters held signs mocking the company — “Rent hikes now with twoday shipping,” read one version; another portrayed the company's smiling box logo with a frown instead.
Van Bramer and other pols also ripped the secrecy of the deal — which will be handled through a state development mechanism that allows it to avoid a vote in the City Council. The city's Economic Development Corp. signed a nondisclosure agreement with the private company during the negotiations.
“Think about how crazy this is,” state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said. “A private company forced the government to sign a secrecy agreement and not tell its own people what it was doing with its money. If we had known what was going on six months ago or 10 months ago, we could have stopped this a long time ago.”
While the deal does an end run around both the Council and the state Legislature, Gianaris said they would be exploring options for blocking the headquarters. “We will go to court if we have to. We will take legislative action if we have to.,” he said.
Retail workers — whose industry has been eaten away at by the online retailer — also railed against the agreement, which has been accused of mistreating its nonunionized warehouse workers.
“We believe that our workers deserve to have a voice . . . ,” Camille Rivera of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said. “And until Amazon comes to understand that workers rights are the most important rights in the City of New York, the State of New York, the country and globally, we cannot stand still and allow a company to get almost $3 billion.”
Gianaris and Van Bramer once signed a letter urging Amazon to come to the city, but said circumstances had changed. “The real problem with what's going on is the fact there are $3 billion of public subsidy going to Amazon,” Gianaris said. “When that letter was signed, many of us thought jobs would be good; we never contemplated that public dollars would be secretly given to Amazon.”