Caregivers protest Amazon, corporate greed

Amazon stands to make record profits off Republican-passed legislation which cuts public services to give tax breaks to massive corporations and the ultrawealthy while funding militarized immigration enforcement 

SEATTLE, WA (September 29, 2025) — Hundreds of SEIU 775-represented caregivers from Washington, Montana, and Alaska came together in downtown Seattle on Friday for a march and rally at the Amazon Spheres. The protest targeted the corporation and mega-billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, both primed to rake in unprecedented profits via H.R. 1, Republican legislation to hand tax cuts and likely billions in government contracts to Amazon for surveillance tech.

H.R. 1, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” pays for these corporate handouts and investments in militarized immigration enforcement by slashing over a trillion dollars from working people’s healthcare and other essential public services.

Caregivers are sounding the alarm on the very real consequences of pulling investments from working families to pad the pockets of the rich. In Washington, H.R. 1 makes it harder for people who get healthcare through Medicaid Expansion to get and stay enrolled. It also adds red tape and bureaucracy for all Medicaid enrollees and makes healthcare more expensive for everyone, per analysis from the AFL-CIO. The legislation also puts a significant financial burden on Washington, which already faces a state budget crunch as tax revenues falter.

SEIU 775 President Sterling Harders and union caregivers took the mic at Friday’s rally to speak about the real-life impacts of these extreme cuts, and connect this defunding of public services with broader attacks on working people.

Money pulled from public services — education, food aid, infrastructure — is instead being invested in border militarization and a violent program of deportation, defunding programs that working communities rely on to expand a system of unaccountable immigration enforcement that endangers the safety of working people on job sites and in neighborhoods across Washington.

Amazon — which has more workers on Medicaid than any other employer in Washington, per SEIU 775 — stands to benefit from H.R. 1’s funding for surveillance technology, including sensors, cameras, identity systems, and cloud services. Amazon, through its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud division, has already provided cloud computing infrastructure to DHS, including ICE, which has utilized cloud services to manage data and support operations to identify, target and deport immigrants.

Washington State Labor Council President April Sims also spoke at the rally, celebrating workers’ courage in fighting back against these attacks on working families.

“They’re betting we’ll stay silent while they take from our communities to give more to the wealthy elite,” said Sims. “Pick up a book or turn on the news because working people have never backed down. Our solidarity is bigger than their greed, our unity is stronger than their hate, and our history is louder than their lies.”

SEIU6 President Zenia Javalera (center front), SEIU 775 President Sterling Harders (left), and WSLC President April Sims (far left).