Marco Rubio supports Amazon workers' union drive, but only because he dislikes Amazon

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) doesn't always support labor unions, but when he does, they're union organizers at a company he dislikes.

The Florida senator penned an op-ed in USA Today on Friday saying "I support the workers" at Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse. The warehouse is the center of a potentially historic effort to unionize 5,800 employees. President Biden previously voiced support for the effort, saying workers in Alabama and across the U.S. "should have a free and fair choice to join a union."

But while Biden described his support as part of his overarching commitment "to support union organizing and the right to collectively bargain," Rubio described a slightly different rationale. He said Amazon represents a "uniquely malicious" company that requires special treatment, but argues "adversarial labor relations are generally harmful" otherwise. "Too often, the right to form a union has been, in practice, a requirement that business owners allow left-wing social organizers to take over their workplaces," he claims.

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Rubio's support for the Amazon union drive centers mostly around how it plays in the larger "culture war," which he seems to define as a conflict between "woke" fads and "working-class values."

Though Axios describes Rubio's op-ed as part of "a push by ambitious Republicans to spotlight American workers," NBC News' Benjy Sarlin notes "there's virtually no discussion of what the Amazon workers are demanding here." Read the op-ed at USA Today.