Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups
Leaked documents reveal Amazon's reliance on Pinkerton operatives to spy on workers and its extensive monitoring of labor unions and social
“Updates on labor organizing activities at warehouses include the exact date, time, location, the source who reported the action, the number of participants at an event (and in some cases a turnout rate of those expected to participate in a labor action), and a description of what happened, such as a ‘strike’ or ‘the distribution of leaflets.’ Other documents reveal that Amazon intelligence analysts keep close tabs on how many warehouse workers attend union meetings; specific worker dissatisfactions with warehouse conditions, such as excessive workloads; and cases of warehouse-worker theft ...
“The new intelligence reports obtained by Motherboard reveal in detail how Amazon uses social media to track environmental activism and social movements in Europe—including Greenpeace and Fridays For Future, environmental activist Greta Thunberg's global climate strike movement—and perceives such groups as a threat to its operations. In 2019, Amazon monitored the Yellow Vests movement, also known as the gilet jaunes, a grassroots uprising for economic justice that spread across France—and solidarity movements in Vienna and protests against state repression in Iran ...
“‘It’s not enough for Amazon to abuse its dominant market power and face antitrust charges by the EU; now they are exporting 19th century American union-busting tactics to Europe,’ Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union, a global federation of trade unions that represents more than 20 million workers, told Motherboard. ‘This is a company that is ignoring the law, spying on workers, and using every page of the U.S. union-busting playbook to silence workers' voices’ ...
“‘Amazon's systemic use of military surveillance methods against unionists and activists is deeply alarming,’ said Aubry, who is also a senior member of France's France Insoumise, France's main radical left party. ‘Amazon and Jeff Bezos act as if they were above the law because they have accumulated unprecedented levels of wealth and power. This has to stop.’”
