To keep their jobs, Amazon workers,
specifically Amazon delivery
drivers, will now be required to
consent to invasive technological
monitoring and biometric monitoring
which comes in the form of
cameras and other technology withIn
the vehicles that they drive.
The devices will take their photos
and track their driving.
It will also track whether they're
yawning too much.
Let me give you the details.
Amazon may use certain technology
that processes biometric
information including on-board
safety camera technology which
collects your photograph for
the purposes of confirming your
identity and connecting you to
your driver account.
Using your photograph,
the technology may create
biometric information and collect,
store and use biometric
information from such photographs.
Also, this technology tracks
vehicle location and
movement including miles driven,
speed, acceleration, braking,
turns, and following distance as
a condition of delivery packages or
delivering packages for Amazon.
And you have to consent to
use the technology.
But an important thing to remember
is if your boss,
if your manager comes to you and
asks for
your consent, you're not really
consenting because they're holding
your livelihood over your head and
you don't really have a choice.
So that's an important thing to
keep in mind as Amazon claims that
they're making sure to get consent
for this type of monitoring.
>> This is one of those really
dystopian stories that you hear
every once in a while coming out of
our good friends at Amazon.
I always think of Amazon as the
potential sci-fi dystopia company.
Like if we ever were to live
in some sort of global one-company
state, where like a single private
corporation basically controls
the world, Amazon will be it.
Because it seems to have
the grandest and most
megalomaniacal designs on that kind
of thing with everything they do.
I mean when you hear testimonies
from some of the workers that work
at Amazon's fulfillment centers,
they're horrifying in the sense
that they actually get paid okay
compared to like other awful
demeaning jobs.
But the feeling that they get over
and over again is that
they're treated like machines,
like robots, that they're
not treated like human beings.
I mean there's been stories of
workers having to wear adult
diapers while they go into
work because like every single
second of their day is monitored.
And they have to fulfill these
insane quotas of packaging and
things like that.
And it's no easier for the drivers,
which is why the union campaign in
Bessemer, Alabama, which I know
we've talked about a lot,
is just to me is like the most
important political story in
the world right now.
I mean, it really is.
It's just Amazon is at the heart of
the system.
It is the most iconic example of
capitalist domination over every
sector of our society.
I mean, they are just everywhere,
they're everywhere.
Huge swathes of our economy are
dominated by this one corporation.
So an organizing campaign to push
back against this corporate power
is just,
to me it's the most important
political story in the world.
Obviously the election ends in five
days so we'll see what happens.
But should it win, should
the workers win their right to form
a union, you could imagine it being
the start of a broader trend.
Should they be defeated, the defeat
will be absolutely crushing.
I mean, it just
will be such a disappointment and
such a soul-sucking acceptance
of this one corporation's dominance
over our lives.
>> Yeah, and just to give you
examples of what this is like for
the drivers, I mean we've heard
about the factory workers and
how they can't even step aside to
go to the bathroom right?
We've heard stories about some of
them literally wearing diapers so
they don't get penalized for
using the restroom while they're on
the job.
It's considered
stealing company time.
Like it's just the most disgusting
treatment of workers imaginable.
Similar things are being
implemented for the drivers who
oftentimes have to deliver hundreds
of packages in a ten-hour shift.
Some drivers have
reported that they don't even have
time to find a bathroom.
The cameras will monitor for
drivers who urinate or
defecate outdoors.
So there's all this pressure to
deliver packages as
quickly as possible.
Get these packages delivered by
the time your shift is over.
You know, you don't want to move
over to overtime, right?
And so I don't know if it's been
a thing where they feel like they
can't find a restroom,
they don't have time for it.
And so to further penalize them,
well, if you do this in
a non-bathroom environment, well,
you'll be penalized for
that as well.
It's just gross.
It's gross and you're right that
focusing on Bessemer and that
unionization effort is important
because that can really have
a ripple effect on all the other
companies that do similar things.
Like when the pandemic
first started,
one of the big stories was that for
people who were lucky enough,
I guess, to keep their jobs and
work from home,
all these companies were starting
to force them to update their
computers with this software that
would monitor them to make sure
that they were actually working
when they were on the clock.
It's just so invasive, like this
kind of monitoring is unnecessary.
It's abusive, it's awful.
And so to see that kind of effort
pay off in Bessemer, I think would
have a ripple effect for
other companies as well.
And I think it would motivate other
workers to organize and
stop allowing their bosses to treat
them like this.