Current Events > Amazon reports expose company spying on labor, environmental groups

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https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp3yn/amazon-leaked-reports-expose-spying-warehouse-workers-labor-union-environmental-groups-social-movements

A trove of more than two dozen internal Amazon reports reveal in stark detail the company's obsessive monitoring of organized labor and social and environmental movements in Europe, particularly during Amazon's peak season between Black Friday and Christmas. The reports, obtained by Motherboard, were written in 2019 by Amazon intelligence analysts who work for the Global Security Operations Center, the company's security division tasked with protecting Amazon employees, vendors, and assets at Amazon facilities around the world.

The documents show Amazon analysts closely monitor the labor and union-organizing activity of their workers throughout Europe, as well as environmentalist and social justice groups on Facebook and Instagram. They also reveal, and an Amazon spokesperson confirmed, that Amazon has hired Pinkerton operativesfrom the notorious spy agency known for its union-busting activitiesto gather intelligence on warehouse workers.

Internal emails sent to Amazon's Global Security Operations Center obtained by Motherboard also reveal that all the division's team members around the world receive updates on labor organizing activities at warehouses that 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, from a bottle of tequila to $15,000 worth of smart watches.

The documents offer an unprecedented look inside the internal security and surveillance apparatus of a company that has vigorously attempted to tamp down employee dissent and has previously been caught smearing employees who attempted to organize their colleagues. Amazon's approach of dealing with its own workforce, labor unions, and social and environmental movements as a threat has grave implications for its workers' privacy and ability to join labor unions and collectively bargainand not only in Europe. It should also be concerning to both customers and workers in the United States and Canada, and around the world as the company expands into Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and India.

Amazon intelligence analysts appear to gather information on labor organizing and social movements to prevent any disruptions to order fulfillment operations. The new intelligence reports obtained by Motherboard reveal in detail how Amazon uses social media to track environmental activism and social movements in Europeincluding Greenpeace and Fridays For Future, environmental activist Greta Thunberg's global climate strike movementand 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 Franceand solidarity movements in Vienna and protests against state repression in Iran.

The stated purpose of one of these documents is to "highlight potential risks/hazards that may impact Amazon operations, in order to meet customer expectation."

"Like any other responsible business, we maintain a level of security within our operations to help keep our employees, buildings, and inventory safe," Lisa Levandowski, a spokesperson for Amazon told Motherboard. "That includes having an internal investigations team who work with law enforcement agencies as appropriate, and everything we do is in line with local laws and conducted with the full knowledge and support of local authorities. Any attempt to sensationalize these activities or suggest were doing something unusual or wrong is irresponsible and incorrect."

Levandowski denied that Amazon hired on-the-ground operatives, and said that any claim that Amazon performs the described activities across its operations worldwide was "N/A."

In a report from November 2019, however, an analyst wrote that Amazon hired Pinkerton spies who were "inserted" into a warehouse in Wroclaw, Poland, to investigate an allegation that management coached job candidates on how to complete job interviews and possibly even conducted the process for them.

The Pinkerton spies were posted in a Wroclaw warehouse known as WRO1, operated by the Amazon contractor ADECCO, to investigate the allegation, according to the Amazon report. "PINKERTON operatives were inserted into WRO1 ADECCO between 2019-11-19 and 2019-11-21. No identifiable evidence of coaching on behalf of the agency recruiters was observed," the document states. "Investigative actions to prove/disprove this hypothesis are ongoing."

The report refers to the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States supplied detectives to infiltrate unions and hired violent goon squads to intimidate workers from engaging in union activity in steel mills. Today, Pinkerton is a subsidiary of the Swedish security company Securitas AB, and has supplied operatives to monitor strikes in West Virginia as recently as 2018.

Levandowski, the Amazon spokesperson, confirmed that Amazon hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency. "We have business partnerships with specialist companies for many different reasonsin the case of Pinkerton, to secure high-value shipments in transit," she said. "We do not use our partners to gather intelligence on warehouse workers. All activities we undertake are fully in line with local laws and conducted with the full knowledge and support of local authorities."

Some of the internal reports obtained by Motherboard also suggest that Amazon's risk analysts use the same tactics to monitor its hundreds of thousands of warehouse and delivery drivers throughout the Americas, the Middle East, Australia, and East Asia.

"Its 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."

"For years people have been comparing Big Tech bosses to 19th century robber barons," she continued. "And now by using the Pinkertons to do his dirty work, [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos is making that connection even clearer."

In October, Lela Chaibi, a member of European Parliament from France, wrote a letter to Bezos co-signed by 37 members of European Parliament, condemning recent reports about Amazon's interference with worker organizing in Europe.

"With Jeff Bezos, we're confronted with someone who doesn't simply run a business and sell products but with someone who is threatening our democracy," Chaibi told Motherboard in response to the new reports about Amazon's surveillance of workers and social movements throughout Europe. "This is a big danger to Europe."

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tl;dr?

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lol Motherboard

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Bootlickers: "Well good. Since they pay you, that totally means you're their property!"

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Dont be human be robots

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@Keith_Valentine

Daddy Bezos is so awesome I looooove him

PatrickMahomes posted...

tl;dr?

megacorporation doing everything megacorporation can to make sure the ants dont gain any leverage.

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Pinkerton still exists?

Questionmarktarius posted...

Pinkerton still exists?

sure, and even better, they're still doing the shady corporate shit they did back in the 10s/20s/30s...

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monkmith posted...

sure, and even better, they're still doing the shady corporate shit they did back in the 10s/20s/30s...

"Busting kneecaps for a hundred years!"

Literally Pinkerton. Capital never changes.

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Kingbuffet posted...

@Keith_Valentine

Daddy Bezos is so awesome I looooove him

I notice that Daddy thing with your type. Its Daddy Bezos, Daddy Trump. Dont project your kink on me. Proly dont even realize what that implies about you. Stick to ruling buffets , ok? Menace an old lady with your fork so you can get the last pork chop, youre the King of golden corral.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Pinkerton still exists?

If you remember the right wing dude that got shot in Colorado a little while ago, youll be surprised to know that the security guard who shot him was working for a security company that was founded by a Pinkerton. Theyre still out there.

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remember when amazon wanted to put employees in literal cages

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