Surveillance technology is enabling a massive expansion of worker exploitation.

Corporations like Amazon enforce a grueling and dangerous pace of work on low-wage workers, most of whom are Black and brown. In addition to being more dangerous, surveillance makes these jobs less stable and lower paid, while corporations pull in record profits. Surveillance is also turned against workers who exercise their rights to speak out against these dangerous conditions and organize, making us all less safe. Congress needs to step-in to protect workers and stop extractive business models.

Without worker protections to stop it, Amazon built an intricate network of artificial intelligent surveillance cameras, tracking devices, thermal cameras, scanners, and social media tracking to monitor and control workers.

Driven by a constant fear of falling behind, worker injuries in Amazon warehouses are ‘nearly double the industry standard.’ And Amazon’s contract delivery drivers face similar monitoring – with the ever-increasing volume of package deliveries in a single shift, drivers are forced to speed through neighborhoods, forgo food during their shift, and skip bathroom breaks.

Amazon regularly uses surveillance to target, watch, and retaliate against workers who organize for better workplace conditions. Throughout the COVID pandemic, Amazon turned surveillance against workers who spoke out about unsafe conditions in warehouses, including over eight Black workers who had demanded better health and safety conditions.

It is not a coincidence that all the workers fired are Black. Black workers are often in the most dangerous jobs, are less likely to be listened to, and are most likely to be retaliated against.

The United States has a long history of using surveillance against Black and brown communities--at home, in neighborhoods, and at work. This strips people of their basic rights and dignities and is an integral part of maintaining racial inequality. Amazon is expanding on this legacy with dangerous facial recognition technology, surveillance partnerships with police departments, and cloud infrastructure to accelerate immigrant deportations.

These practices have no place in our society and need to be illegal.

I’m calling on you to take action. Please work with your colleagues to end worker surveillance. It’s incumbent upon you to protect worker health and safety, fortify the rights of workers to speak out and organize, guard against exploitative business models, protect against new forms of tech-driven racial discrimination, and incentivize innovation that enhances worker well-being.

Thank you.