Safety issues have been a perennial concern for Amazon workers. Amazon executives denigrated Smalls, who is Black, as “not smart or articulate” during a meeting with then-CEO Jeff Bezos, according to leaked memo reported by Vice News. With a budget of $120,000, the Amazon Labor Union managed to defeat the $1.5 trillion behemoth, which spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021 alone.Īdding to the David-and-Goliath overtones, the Amazon Labor Union’s president, Christian Smalls, a 33-year old former rapper, had been fired by the company after leading a small walkout calling for better workplace protections against the coronavirus in 2020. This came as a shock to many because it was achieved by an independent union not affiliated with an established union and that operated on a shoestring budget. On Friday, Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, stunned the nation by becoming the first Amazon location to successfully unionize. The workers were selected for their “great sense of humor,” leaked documents showed. In 2018, the company launched a pilot program in which employees were handpicked to form a Twitter army advocating for the company, as The Intercept reported. The only kinds of words that may be screened are ones that are offensive or harassing, which is intended to protect our team.”Īmazon has experimented with social media programs in the past. “If it does launch at some point down the road,” said the Amazon spokesperson, “there are no plans for many of the words you’re calling out to be screened. In November 2021, Amazon convened a high-level meeting in which top executives discussed plans to create an internal social media program that would let employees recognize co-workers’ performance with posts called “Shout-Outs,” according to a source with direct knowledge. “This particular program has not been approved yet and may change significantly or even never launch at all.” “Our teams are always thinking about new ways to help employees engage with each other,” said Amazon spokesperson Barbara M. Amazon will block and flag employee posts on a planned internal messaging app that contain keywords pertaining to labor unions, according to internal company documents reviewed by The Intercept. An automatic word monitor would also block a variety of terms that could represent potential critiques of Amazon’s working conditions, like “slave labor,” “prison,” and “plantation,” as well as “restrooms” - presumably related to reports of Amazon employees relieving themselves in bottles to meet punishing quotas.
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