Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, SENATE NEWS—Sanders seeks answers from Amazon on plans for automation-related job cuts, (Oct 30, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Walmart
By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.
“If Amazon and other large corporations replace tens of millions of workers with artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other new technologies, who do you think is going to be able to buy the products you sell.?”
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, recently wrote to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, asking about the retail giant’s reported plans to automate warehouses and how it will affect American workers.
Recently, Sanders notes, the New York Times reported on the employer’s immediate plans to replace over half a million jobs with robots, as well as its longer-term goals for full automation. There are also other reports being made of thousands of layoffs being planned by the employer in the near future.
Who benefits? “The pace of technological advancement in robotics and artificial intelligence has rapidly increased in just the past few years. These revolutionary technologies raise fundamental questions about who will benefit from these changes,” Sanders wrote. “If Amazon succeeds on its massive automation plan, it will have a profound impact on blue-collar workers throughout America and will likely be used as a model by large corporations throughout America, including Walmart and UPS, to displace tens of millions of jobs.”
What about displaced workers? The senator also asked: “What are Amazon’s plans to provide help and support for the many hundreds of thousands of workers you will be replacing with robots and AI? Are you going to simply dump these workers out on the street, or will you treat them with the dignity they deserve? Will you be providing a decent severance package for them? Will Amazon be maintaining their health care benefits? Will Amazon offer them a secure retirement plan?”
Who will be able to buy the products? “If Amazon and other large corporations replace tens of millions of workers with artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other new technologies,” he wrote, “who do you think is going to be able to buy the products you sell? Where are they going to get their income?”
Sanders also notes that Amazon is expected to receive an estimated $15.7 billion tax break this year alone from the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
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