Thread by @athenaforall

THREAD

"Time off task"

"Rate"

Let's talk about what these Orwellian terms really mean at @Amazon and why lawmakers must step in to #ProtectAmazonWorkers.

(1/🧵) #PrimeDay2020

vice.com/en/article/jgx…

Farhiyo Warsame, an Amazon warehouse worker, was targeted, surveilled, and fired by @Amazon after speaking up about unsafe conditions at work, according to Athena member, the @AwoodMpls Center.

(2/🧵)

#PrimeDay #ProtectAmazonWorkers

"Time off task" or TOT

Amazon tracked Farhiyo Warsame's time in between each small task and used the accumulated extra seconds to justify threats for her eventual termination.

(3/🧵) #SafetyIsntSpying #ProtectAmazonWorkers

Amazon would have u believe it monitors work productivity-but in reality, it controls physical movements, dictates when or if they can use bathrooms, discipline workers and has been used repeatedly to retaliate against workers.

4/🧵 #SafetyIsntSpying

theverge.com/2019/4/25/1851…

Amazon's "time off task" and "rate" enforces an unreasonable pace of work that leads to the unusually high number of injuries.

According to Amazon's own leaked figures, TWICE the industry average for serious injuries. Likely more.

5/🧵 #SafetyIsntSpying

Today, workers can be subjected to an unprecedented level of workplace surveillance and control.

Including VOICE MONITORING. washingtonpost.com/business/2018/…

And this

6/🧵 #SafetyIsntSpying #ProtectAmazonWorkers

And tracking applications are being introduced into workplaces that are already stacked against low-wage workers, creating an environment ripe for exploitation.

7/🧵 #SafetyIsntSpying #ProtectAmazonWorkers

businessinsider.com/amazon-scores-…

Surveillance like @Amazon's gives corporations more power over workers. Combined with automation that dictates the pace and type of work, it results in a more dangerous, punishing, and precarious workplace @reveal

8/🧵 #SafetyIsntSpying

revealnews.org/episodes/catch…

This worker surveillance can also lead to lower wages, deskilling of jobs, mental health stresses, the potential for racial discrimination, and a chilling effect on organizing.

9/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

time.com/5629233/amazon…

Using surveillance to exploit workers has a long American history, going back to the plantation and in manufacturing, where Taylorism and other systems of “scientific management” established control over workers’ every move

10/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The surveillance trend has worsened dramatically in recent years, and laws and regulatory agencies have failed to catch up.

11/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

With few protections for workers, corporations have been able to grow profits by demanding and enforcing dangerous speeds, controlling each physical movement of a worker, and maximizing opportunities to make workers replaceable and expendable.

12/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

New tech that controls workers are a radical transfer of power from workers to corps. Amazon workers report that a scanner tells exactly where to go, gives seconds to get there then orders you what to do next @SamAdlerBell

13/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

logicmag.io/bodies/survivi…

Your entire Amazon workload and every task you complete is managed in seconds. If you take longer than the seconds you are given, the time is added to your time off task.

14/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers #PrimeDay

cnbc.com/2020/07/17/ama…

If you go to the bathroom or take a rest at @Amazon, this is also added to time off task. At the end of the day, if your productivity falls below a moving threshold, you are disciplined, and eventually fired.

15/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

Amazon’s contracted delivery face similar monitoring, with dispatchers pressuring drivers to move increasing volumes of packages in a single shift — even if it means they must speed or skip bathroom breaks to meet quotas.

16/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

features.propublica.org/amazon-deliver…

At @Amazon, this is paired with intelligence systems and practices to monitor potential organizing activity outside of work.

Yes, outside of work.

17/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

theverge.com/2020/9/2/21418…

"geoSPatial Operating Console, or SPOC — would help @Amazon analyze and visualize at least around 40 different data sets," half of them union-related.

18/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

vox.com/recode/2020/10…

This level of monitoring and control has no place in our economy. Corporate employers say that this tech make workplaces more efficient and are necessary to be competitive, but those claims do not hold up to scrutiny.

A) It's designed for failure.

19/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

B) It mostly harms Black and brown workers.

20/🧵 #AntiBlackAmazon

C) It's being used to harm not help @Amazon workers

21/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

D) It undermines protected rights of workers

22/🧵

E) It profits by deskilling @Amazon workers and reducing wages

23/🧵

Amazon has even used the cover of COVID19 pandemic to increase its abuse AND sell it to other corporate employers.

24/🧵 #ProtectAmazonWorkers

State and federal government should enact protections against workplace surveillance. Workers deserve better than models of exploitation developed on plantations and in factories over one hundred years ago.

vice.com/en/article/jgx…

25/25 #ProtectAmazonWorkers @bigblackjacobin