Top Democratic Party bundler Steve Elmendorf and his firm Avoq lobbied for Amazon on a warehouse worker safety bill, one targeting the company’s working conditions, that is supported by labor unions and opposed by business groups.
The bicameral bill was a congressional priority this year for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is representing thousands of workers at the major New York City fulfillment center that was the site of labor actions from Dec. 19 to Christmas Eve. Workers joined the strike at Amazon delivery facilities in Southern California, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Skokie, Illinois.
Elmendorf and other Avoq lobbyists lobbied for Amazon with the U.S. House, Senate, and Executive Office of the President regarding “Issues related to workplace safety, including S. 4260, Warehouse Worker Protection Act,” according to Senate disclosures for Q2 and Q3 of this year. Elmendorf and his firm, formerly known as Subject Matter, have lobbied on labor, workplace, and antitrust issues for Amazon since 2019. Amazon has paid the Democratic Party insider’s firm nearly $1.3 million for its lobbying on labor issues.
Elmendorf, a longtime senior adviser and chief of staff to former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, bundles six-figure amounts every six months for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), according to Federal Election Commission records. In the first half of 2024, he raised $185,800 for the DCCC, and he has also bundled hundreds of thousands for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).
The Warehouse Worker Protection Act was introduced in May by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), with Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and the recently defeated Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) as original co-sponsors. The bill aims to prohibit high-speed work quotas for warehouse workers that have led to high injury rates among Amazon workers. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined as a co-sponsor in September, making the measure bipartisan, with a dozen Senate cosponsors on the Democratic side of the aisle, like the recently defeated Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio). The House version is also bipartisan, with 50 co-sponsors.
“The Warehouse Worker Protection Act is about protecting the health and dignity of workers from the scourge of corporate greed at Amazon and other large companies,” Markey said in a statement.
