America’s Largest Retail Workers Union, Which Led Amazon Union Campaign in Alabama, Calls on Congress and Regulators to Crack Down on Amazon Tax Avoidance
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International, the union for 1.3 million frontline retail and food workers, condemned a new report that Amazon has secretly been lobbying Congress to keep the primary tax break that allowed it to have a 2020 tax rate lower than most Americans.
UFCW recently led a campaign to unionize Amazon workers in Alabama and has been a leading voice calling for greater accountability for Amazon, highlighting safety failures enabling nearly 20,000 Amazon frontline worker COVID infections in the first year of the pandemic.
A recent analysis found that Amazon had record-breaking sales and income for 2020, and an effective federal income tax rate of just 9.4 percent, which is less than half the statutory corporate tax rate of 21 percent. The Amazon tax rate is also well below the 13.5 percent tax rate paid by the average American, like many of its essential workers in Amazon warehouses and Whole Foods grocery stores.
UFCW International President Marc Perrone released the following statement:
“Amazon and Jeff Bezos have now been exposed as world-class corporate hypocrites. It is hypocrisy at the highest level for Amazon to be publicly supporting higher corporate taxes while secretly lobbying Congress behind closed doors to ensure the company pays as little in taxes as possible.
“While millions of Amazon workers in warehouses and grocery stores have been on the frontlines of COVID-19, Jeff Bezos has been doing all he can to make sure the company keeps the giant tax breaks in place, allowing it in 2020 to pay a lower tax rate than many Amazon workers.
“As America’s largest union for food and retail workers on the frontlines of this pandemic, UFCW is urging Members of Congress to right this wrong and ensure that the most powerful companies in the country are paying the same share of taxes everyday hardworking Americans do every year.”
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UFCW is the largest private sector union in the United States. UFCW International represents 1.3 million professionals and their families in healthcare, grocery stores, meatpacking, food processing, retail shops and other industries. Our members serve our communities in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico. Learn more about the UFCW at ufcw.org.
