Smalls noted that these are not the only demands, as others are listed on the TCOEW website. He also included making employees shareholders a part of the demands.
Besides the demands starting with Bezos making changes for his employees, Smalls hopes that the organization will be able to adapted to keep attention and provide a platform for workers to share stories.
“We absolutely believe in our demands 100 percent. This man controls so much wealth and power that he could end so many world crises, and he needs to start with his own employees,” Smalls said. “We’re hoping as an organization is [that] as we do these demonstrations that we want to stay relevant… The labor movement kind of drowned in all the media attention that was being distributed to all the other issues in this country, and we just wanted to change to keep our stories relevant so we can make change for the future.”
While the guillotine is certainly shocking and gets attention, Smalls said that the protests aren’t meant to be violent, and they’re not wishing harm on Bezos.
“People gotta realize, nobody’s trying to behead the man. We’re not murderers. We’re not communists. We’re not violent people… We’re just regular people that came together to form a family, an alliance, and an organization. We’re workers—essential workers. We’re supposed to be essential workers, and for people to just categorize us as stereotypes is ridiculous. We’re part of the place where you live and part of the communities you reside in,” he said.
Smalls explained that the guillotine was more a symbol for what the organization wanted, not just from Bezos, but all billionaires.
“The guillotine was just a statement saying that for all billionaires, working class people are fighting back to get some of the power and wealth. It’s a statement for that. A statement for the fact that, ‘We’re coming for you, and we’re trying to get a piece of what we rightfully deserve,’ which is a decent living pay wage. $15 an hour is not doing it in 2020. I don’t care what part of the country you live in. The minimum should be $30 an hour, and it should probably be more than that in certain parts of the country, depending on where you live—like New York City, for example,” he said.
“It’s not fair that I have to struggle with $15 an hour to bring home a check every two weeks and only live check to check. I want to live comfortable. I want to take vacations. I want to have a savings. I want to live a decent life, be able to travel and enjoy life… We feel like as workers we deserve $30 an hour,” he added.
“What Bezos needs to hear is the stories of his own employees. He’s so customer-driven, but we’re supposed to be customers too—his employees. So as customers, if you’re supposed to take care of the customers, the customer is always right. Then, he needs to listen to the stories of these workers that are coming to my demonstrations. These are their experiences,” he said.
