State of the unionising: Amazon
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2019
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We examine the aftermath of the online behemoth’s withdrawal of its New York expansion plans, and speak with its Midwestern workers about growing talk of unionising. President Emmanuel Macron hopes to quell protests across France with a series of “town halls”; we drop into one. And mezcal is on the rise, but can tequila’s more-traditional cousin survive if the whole world wants a shot?
Music credit: "Chez Space" by The Freeharmonic Orchestra (CC-BY)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio, I'm your host Jason Palmer. |
| 0:09.4 | Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:17.8 | Francis President Emmanuel Macron has quite a problem on his hands. |
| 0:21.8 | The yellow-jacketed protesters, known as Shuley Jean, have become a potent political force. |
| 0:27.4 | We visit one of his town halls where he's listening to public concerns and trying to shed his standoffish image. |
| 0:34.4 | And have you had the smoky spirit called Mascao? |
| 0:37.4 | It's kind of a cousin of Tequila and demand for it is growing, but a global boom would threaten to upend the time-honored traditions that set it apart. |
| 0:47.4 | But first... |
| 0:56.4 | Last week Amazon scrapped plans to build a new headquarters in New York City. |
| 1:04.4 | The company had planned to create 25,000 jobs and spend two and a half billion dollars to set up shop. |
| 1:11.4 | To sweeten the deal, the city had offered $3 billion in subsidies, but the company says that hostility from local politicians stopped the project going forward. |
| 1:20.4 | New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Braemer argued that Amazon is anti-union and anti-immigrant. |
| 1:26.4 | If we believe in the rights of working people to organize, even if you stand to financially benefit from the deal, you should oppose it. |
| 1:33.4 | Polls showed that 70% of New Yorkers supported the move. |
| 1:37.4 | Why did the deal go south? And what happens now? |
| 1:40.4 | To find out, I'm joined by Rosemary Ward, one of our correspondence in New York. |
| 1:44.4 | 25,000 jobs sounds like something any city would want to bring in. Why has there been such a backlash? What were people worried about? |
| 1:51.4 | There was a small and vocal backlash. |
| 1:54.4 | Majority of New Yorkers actually wanted the Amazon deal. |
| 1:57.4 | Their issues with the deal were why are we giving $3 billion to the richest company in the world, which is headed by one of the richest men in the world? |
| 2:06.4 | They didn't make sense in their mind. They have a point because there's been studies galore showing that corporate giveaways and corporate welfare can be redundant. |
| 2:15.4 | One study found that incentives have no discernible impact on firm expansion. |
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