Amazon is currently hiring intelligence analysts to keep track of “labor organizing threats”.
What We Know:
- There are two job postings at Amazon for “Intelligence Analyst” and “Sr Intelligence Analyst.” The positions are responsible for gathering intelligence such as insider threats and corporate espionage. When listing potential threats to gather intelligence on, the postings include “protests, geopolitical crises, conflicts impacting operations,” and specifically mentions “organized labor” three times.
- Amazon is notorious for its suspect treatment of employees and these postings are an example of their efforts to squash any kind of agency for their workers. Earlier this year, Amazon fired Christian Smalls, who organized a protest at a New York fulfillment center over the lack of safety measures for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon executives went so far as to call Smalls “not smart, or articulate”.
- Amazon deleted the job listings. However, it is unclear whether or not Amazon has already filled the positions or intend to fill them. According to LinkedIn, 71 people applied for the Intelligence Analyst position and 24 people applied for the Sr Intelligence Analyst position.
- Dania Rajendra is the Director of the Athena Coalition which is a group of several grassroots labor organizations. Rajendra criticized Amazon’s postings, saying “Workers, especially Black workers, have been telling us all for months that Amazon is targeting them for speaking out. This job description is proof that Amazon intends to continue on this course.”
These postings make it clear that Amazon has always viewed unions, strikes, and any kind of organized activism by their labor as threats to their corporate empire. Furthermore, it was recently reported by Motherboard that Amazon has been monitoring the online activity of Amazon Flex drivers in private Facebook groups.
