According to internal company documents reviewed by The Intercept, Amazon will block and flag employee posts containing keywords related to unions in a planned internal messaging app. An automatic word monitor would also block a variety of terms that could represent potential criticism of Amazon’s working conditions, such as “slave labor,” “prison,” and “plantation,” as well as “restrooms” — presumably related to reports by Amazon employees themselves Facilitate bottles to meet punitive quotas.
“Our teams are always thinking of new ways to help employees connect with one another,” said Amazon spokeswoman Barbara M. Agrait. “This particular program has not yet been approved and may change significantly or even never start at all.”
In November 2021, Amazon called a high-level meeting where top executives discussed plans to create an internal social media program that would allow employees to recognize peer performance with posts called “shout-outs,” according to a source with direct knowledge.
The main goal of the program, said Dave Clark, head of Amazon’s global consumer business, is to reduce employee turnover by boosting worker satisfaction — and also productivity. Shout-outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees receive virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents say. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are insane star collectors.”
But company officials also warned about what they called “the dark side of social media” and decided to actively monitor posts to ensure a “positive community.” At the meeting, Clark suggested that the program should be similar to an online dating app like Bumble, which allows individuals to engage one-on-one, rather than a more forum-like platform like Facebook.
Following the meeting, an “Auto Bad Word Monitor” was developed, which is a blacklist that flags and automatically blocks employees from sending a message containing profane or inappropriate keywords. In addition to profanity, however, the terms include many relevant to organized labor, including “union,” “grievance,” “raise,” and “compensation.” Other prohibited keywords are terms such as “ethics”, “unfair”, “slave”, “master”, “liberty”, “diversity”, “injustice” and “fairness”. Even some phrases like “This is worrying” will be banned.
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“With free text, we risk people writing shout-outs that evoke negative feelings in viewers and recipients,” says a document summarizing the show. “We want to tend to be restrictive about the content that can be posted to prevent a negative employee experience.”
In addition to the automated system, managers have the power to flag or suppress shout-outs they deem inappropriate, the documents show.
A pilot program is scheduled to start later this month. In addition to insults and swear words, the list includes the following words:
I hate
union
Fire
Completed
compensation
salary increase
bullying
harassment
I do not care
Not polite
This is worrying
Stupid
That’s stupid
prison
threat
petition
complaint
injustice
diversity
ethics
Justice
Accessibility
vaccination
senior ops
subsistence level
presentation
Unfair
favor
rate
TOT
United / Unity
plantation
slave
slave labor
master
Affected
freedom
toilets
robot
rubbish
committee
coalition
Amazon has experimented with social media programs in the past. In 2018, the company launched a pilot program where employees were selected to form a Twitter army dedicated to the company, as reported by The Intercept. The workers were chosen for their “great sense of humour,” leaked documents showed.
On Friday, Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, stunned the nation by becoming the first Amazon site to successfully unionize. This came as a shock to many as it was achieved by an independent union, not affiliated with an established union and operating on a tight budget. With a $120,000 budget, the Amazon Labor Union managed to defeat the $1.5 trillion behemoth that has spent $4.3 million on anti-union advisers in 2021 alone.
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Adding to the David and Goliath undertones, Amazon Labor Union President Christian Smalls, a 33-year-old former rapper, was fired from the company after leading a small-scale strike demanding better job protections against demanded by the coronavirus in 2020. Amazon executives slammed Smalls, who is black, as “not smart or articulate” during a meeting with then-CEO Jeff Bezos, according to a memo leaked by Vice News.
Security issues are a perennial issue for Amazon workers. In December, a tornado killed six Amazon employees at a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois. Many employees said they received virtually no emergency training, The Intercept reported. (The House Oversight Committee recently launched an investigation into Amazon’s workplace safety policies.)
In 2020, workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, attempted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The attempt received unusual publicity, catching the attention of President Joe Biden, who was released a statement He said, “Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union…without intimidation or threats from employers.”
The Bessemer vote failed, but the National Labor Relations Board ordered a snap election, citing undue interference by Amazon. The Bessemer warehouse held a second vote, also counted last week, and while the initial count favored Amazon, the vote was much closer than the previous one and will ultimately depend on the results of the contested ballots.
Amazon released a statement Friday saying it is considering appealing the Staten Island union vote and alleging the NLRB interfered.
Updated: April 4, 2022 4:32 PM ET
The headline and article have been updated to emphasize that the app is still in the planning stages and has not yet launched.