[MUSIC] Amazon kicked off this massive effort. Called HQ2 where they were gonna build a 50,000 employee, $5 billion campus somewhere in the United States. There were hundreds of cities that clamored for this, hoping that it would jump start their economies, put them on the map. In November of last year, Amazon announced they were coming to New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The problem was, is that while Arlington, Virginia, that all went smoothly, in New York City there was sudden and persistent criticism about the project. Clearly, we have to make sure that we invest in our infrastructure, invest in our schools, invest in the working people of this community who made Long Island City what it is today. Yeah! I am here to fight with you because really, again, this deal stinks. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] At first blush it seems that the thing that really killed this project was the fact that Amazon has almost an entirely non-union workforce in the United States. Whereas New York City is a heavily union town. The amount of opposition to having a company that really did not support unions was almost too much to bear, and a lot of local politicians fought against it As much as they could. [MUSIC] There was a lot of local support for the project. New York CIty Mayor de Blasio supported the project. New York Governor Andrew Governor Cuomo supported the project. Both of those politicians do not see eye to eye very often, but they were very much hand in hand when it came to this project. They thought it was a huge opportunity for New York City a huge opportunity for Queens to really put itself on the map and become a major tech player [MUSIC] The critics feel very good about themselves, they're saying that Amazon or any other company should not be coming into the city having the positions that they have about unions. Amazon also received where they were expected to receive, something close to three billion dollars and incentives They're hoping that this is really seen as a model for saying okay, we appreciate that you wanna build here, you wanna hire here, but the concept of what they describe is corporate welfare. We're not gonna buy that. We're also not gonna buy the position that you're not gonna be supportive to unions, especially in a place like New York City. And we are grateful to stand here today. At the beginning, only the beginning, of our fight to stop the predatory practices of Amazon. We are thrilled today to be able to say that community pressure has stood up to the most powerful, wealthy man in the world and this is an interim victory that we are proud to stand behind. [MUSIC] Amazon id going to continue with their push into northern Virginia. That project seems to be going just fine. At this point they were expected to have 25 thousand employees coming to New York City. They are going to have another 25 thousand coming to northern Virginia. Those 25,000 are expected to continue in Northern Virginia. But the New York City employees are probably gonna get sprinkled in a variety of different locations. That's what Amazon said. They're not going to find another site. Amazon said we're not gonna Reopen the process, we're just gonna scrap the New York project and its very possible that Northern Virginia ends up benefiting a lot from this maybe they will end up getting even more employees out of it.