U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), known advocate for workers’ rights and organizer of “Fight the Oligarchy” rallies across the country, is reacting to a report about Amazon getting ready to replace more than half a million jobs with robots.
According to The New York Times, “Amazon’s automation team expects the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 people in the United States it would otherwise need by 2027.”
That portrait of a retail behemoth with a much smaller employee footprint got a push this week as Amazon announced it would cut 14,000 mostly white collar workers as it transitions into a more AI-centric company. And Reuters reported on Monday that Amazon plans to cut as many as 30,000 jobs, shedding about one in ten of its 350,000 salaried jobs.
(Amazon employs more than 1.5 million people, the majority of them are paid by the hour.)
Sanders wrote on social media: “Amazon’s plan to replace 600,000 workers with AI and robots could save it $10 billion on top of billions more in tax breaks. Today, I demanded answers from Jeff Bezos: Will you simply dump these workers out on the street, or will you treat them with the dignity they deserve?”
Amazon’s plan to replace 600,000 workers with AI and robots could save it $10 billion on top of billions more in tax breaks.
Today, I demanded answers from Jeff Bezos: Will you simply dump these workers out on the street, or will you treat them with the dignity they deserve? pic.twitter.com/zGB8lksg01
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 28, 2025
Reuters reported that an Amazon spokesperson said the company had no immediate response” to Sanders’ letter, but did say that Amazon’s “automation goals are to assist workers and create new jobs.”
Sanders also railed that “Trump gave Amazon a $16 billion tax break to accelerate its investments this year. Now, Amazon will replace 600,000 workers with robots as Jeff Bezos accelerates his plan to automate warehouses. No. Corporate tax breaks do not trickle down to workers. Never have. Never will.”
The Senator added: “Now, corporations like Amazon, Meta, Apple, Google & Lockheed Martin are returning the favor by giving Trump $300 million for a fancy ballroom. That’s a pretty good return on investment.”
Last week Sanders found himself in the unusual position of agreeing with billionaire Elon Musk on the same subject, when the world’s richest man pronounced that “AI and robots will replace all jobs” in the near future.
After saying he feared Musk was correct, Sanders asked a rhetorical question similar to the one he posed to Bezos above: “So what happens to workers who have no jobs and no income?”
I don’t often agree with Elon Musk, but I fear that he may be right when he says, “AI and robots will replace all jobs.”
So what happens to workers who have no jobs and no income?
AI & robotics must benefit all of humanity, not just billionaires. https://t.co/4uNeMy1Pnj
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 22, 2025