The Militarization of Employment Relations: Racialized Surveillance and Worker Control in Amazon Fulfillment Centers

Through a socio-structural analysis, we examine contemporary forms of labor control faced by Black warehouse workers in the southern United States. Grounding our research in critical industrial relations theory and centering our analysis in the counter-narratives of Black workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, we examine the impact of intensified military-style tactics in the modern workplace, contextualized by historical and regional legacies of racialized labor exploitation, policing, and bodily control.

Tamara L. Lee et al, The Militarization of Employment Relations: Racialized Surveillance and Worker Control in Amazon Fulfillment Centers, Work and Occupations (52, 4) pp. 491-528. Copyright © 2024. DOI: 10.1177/07308884241292733. Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference. For permission to reuse an article, please follow our Process for Requesting Permission.