Weaponizing the Workplace: How Algorithmic Management Shaped Amazon’s Antiunion Campaign in Bessemer, Alabama
Scholarship on “algorithmic management” focuses on how employers use algorithms and digital devices to routinely control workers. It also looks at how workers resist this control. But how does algorithmic management affect the ability of employers to respond to collective action? The answer is impor...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Socius |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251318389 |
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| Summary: | Scholarship on “algorithmic management” focuses on how employers use algorithms and digital devices to routinely control workers. It also looks at how workers resist this control. But how does algorithmic management affect the ability of employers to respond to collective action? The answer is important because algorithmic management is the “new contested terrain” of labor struggles. Drawing on 42 interviews with workers and court documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the author examines Amazon’s antiunion campaign in Bessemer, Alabama. The findings reveal that employers can weaponize elements or effects of algorithmic management against unions via repurposing devices that algorithmically control workers, engaging in “algorithmic slack-cutting,” and exploiting patterns of social media activity encouraged by algorithmic management. These findings demonstrate that the labor process can shape counter-organizing opportunities for employers, not just organizing opportunities for workers. They also reveal that algorithmic management has upgraded the antiunion arsenal, while shedding light on other aspects of algorithmic management that have escaped notice. The discussion section presents a framework for researching how other workplace variables shape counter-organizing. The conclusion discusses implications for our understanding of workplace regimes and the future of labor control. |
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| ISSN: | 2378-0231 |