(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Known for its smiling A-to-Z customer service, tech titan Amazon is apparently exploring a move to crush any dissent in its employee ranks, in the wake of one of its New York warehouses voting to unionize.
An internal messaging app being designed for employees has the potential to flag posts that “contain keywords pertaining to labor unions,” reported the Intercept.
A review of internal company documents revealed that an “automatic word monitor” could be used to block any negative descriptions or opinions about Amazon, targeting words like “slave labor,” “prison,” and “plantation.”
Other key words subject to “monitor” that could possibly reflect poorly on Amazon included: “robots,” “harassment,” “injustice,” “diversity,” and “restrooms,” — presumably, according to the Intercept, “related to reports of Amazon employees relieving themselves in bottles to meet punishing quotas.”
Amazon, once the report became public, unleashed its cadre of public relations peddlers to assure that the company was only trying to “help its employees engage with each other.”
“This particular program has not been approved yet and may change significantly or even never launch at all,” said Amazon obfuscater Barbara M. Agrait.
That could be taken as slight assurance, however, when internal documents showed Amazon officials actively looking for ways to suppress speech, including scraping an initial idea that would have allowed employees to engage in forum-like discussions.
That, apparently, was a bridge too far and company officials sounded the alarm over what they deemed “the dark side of social media.”
Much better, the champions of employment engagement decided, would be censoring and suppressing any negative comments to achieve a “positive community.”
If employees were allowed to use “free text” to write Shout-Outs, messages to fellow employees, the company would risk dissent that could “generate negative sentiments among the viewers and the receivers.”
“We want to lean towards being restrictive on the content that can be posted to prevent a negative associate experience,” instructed an internal company document.
That might help explain why the same company mouthpiece could insist, presumably with a straight face, that “there are no plans for many of the words you’re calling out to be screened.”
Amazon, obviously, wouldn’t need to screen any words that were already being suppressed by eliminating “free text,” or actual discussion.
“The only kinds of words that may be screened are ones that are offensive or harassing, which is intended to protect our team,” said the Amazon spokesperson.
It’s probably just coincidence, then, that some of those words that could harm the “team include “unite,” “union,” “representation,” “grievance” and “petition.”
In contrast, the workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse had no problem with some of those words. Their decision unionize “meant that America’s most powerful non-union company has just been cracked open not by some deep-pocketed institutional force, but by a former employee,” reported the Guardian.
Amazon, it appeared, frowned on this particular type of employee engagement, according to The Hill.
“We’re disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees,” the company said.
And because Amazon knows what’s best for Amazon employees, the company said that it may be “filing objections based on the inappropriate and undue influence by the [National Labor Relations Board].”
