Amazon’s surveillance, electronic monitoring, and automated control drive unrelenting work rates and interfere with workers’ right to organize, charge claims.

(St, Louis, MO)–––Yesterday, Amazon STL8 warehouse workers with the Missouri Workers Center filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The charge highlights Amazon’s invasive surveillance, electronic monitoring, and automated control of its warehouse workers and alleges that these practices impede workers’ right to organize. The workers filed this charge amidst an injury crisis at Amazon that is driven by the company’s dangerous work rates, which are enforced through Amazon’s surveillance practices.

Wendy Taylor, STL8 warehouse worker and organizing committee member, stated, “I am glad to see this Unfair Labor Practice charge being filed with the NLRB. As a warehouse worker, I’m forced to work at a breakneck pace, all while Amazon tracks my every move — for the sake of their profits. Not only does working under these conditions take a serious toll on my health and contribute to a sky-high injury rate at the company; it also makes it much harder to come together with my coworkers to discuss our issues and how to unionize for a safer and more humane workplace.

She continued, “Amazon might think they’re the only ones watching, but we’ve got our eyes on them too, and globally. Beyond this ULP, trade unions representing over eight million workers in Europe have called on their government to investigate Amazon’s abusive and potentially illegal surveillance of workers. This bold action wouldn’t be happening without workers like us sounding the alarm to stop Amazon before their Big Brother behavior becomes the norm at every workplace. We will keep organizing until we win the respect and dignity all workers deserve.”

This ULP charge breaks new ground by arguing that undue surveillance and unrelenting speed requirements can unlawfully deter workers from exercising their right to organize and stop them from winning better wages, benefits, and protections. This argument is based on the Memo on Unlawful Electronic Surveillance and Automated Management Practices issued by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, in 2022.

According to Seema N. Patel, a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, “While this charge may be the first of its kind, it underscores the dangers of large-scale corporate employers who, in their quest to maximize productivity and profit, wield AI-powered technologies in a way that minimizes workers’ dignity and safety. We cannot ignore just how rapidly such technologies are evolving and being implemented into myriad low-wage workplaces, often to increasingly exert control over workers without widely adopted guidelines or guardrails to govern their use.” Amazon’s electronic monitoring, automated control, and electronic recordkeeping of its warehouse tracks workers second by second, driving dangerous work rates and making it harder for workers to come together to push for better working conditions.

Amazon’s undue surveillance has forced European unions to act. Twenty leaders of major trade unions across Europe, representing over eight million workers, have called on European data protection authorities to investigate Amazon’s abusive – potentially illegal – data surveillance of its workers, including the pervasive use of surveillance and algorithmic management.