FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 5, 2018
Contact: Chelsea Connor | cconnor@rwdsu.org | 347-866-6259
PROMINENT OPPONENTS OF AMAZON’S HQ2 DEAL FOR NEW YORK CITY DISMISS QUINNIPIAC POLL AS MEANINGLESS
New York, NY – Today several prominent opponents of Amazon’s HQ2 deal for New York City dismissed Quinnipiac’s new poll on Amazon as meaningless.
They noted that opposition to the HQ2 deal continues to grow every day and that the $3 billion backroom deal to help Amazon open a new corporate headquarters in New York City has been widely criticized for weeks.
“This Quinnipiac poll means nothing. The reality is that opposition to this terrible Amazon HQ2 deal for New York City continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Amazon knows it is facing widespread opposition among New Yorkers across the city. That’s why Amazon went shopping for a new PR firm to help sell a $3 billion backroom deal that’s been criticized from every angle. This poll does nothing to change the fact that Amazon’s current HQ2 deal for New York City is fundamentally bad for workers and communities,”said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW.
“This poll doesn’t come close to reflecting the reality in our communities, which stand united in opposition to the #HQ2Scam. Not a single community member with whom we’ve discussed the terms of this deal has said they support it. On the contrary, local residents are outraged by an enormous State and City giveaway to the world’s wealthiest man, and the displacement and immense pressure on our already-strained infrastructure that will certainly follow. Our community continues to rise and will defeat this bad deal,” said Deborah Axt, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York.
“This poll is trash and should be thrown away with the rest of today’s garbage. No Quinnipiac pollster has spent real time on the ground in Long Island City and surrounding communities in recent weeks. We have. We know that the level of anger toward Amazon and the HQ2 deal is intensifying and spreading. More and more New Yorkers know that Amazon’s expanded presence in New York City will accelerate gentrification and displacement and endanger our communities,” said Jonathan Westin, Executive Director of New York Communities for Change.