Amazon is monitoring Whole Foods union efforts with a high-tech heat map
Usually, when workers organize a union, they face opposition from their employer in the form of threatening flyers posted in the break room, or captive meetings that extol the virtues of management. Some employers also (illegally) fire workers who are leading the charge. But now, welcome to 2020. Business Insider has a bombshell report on how Amazon-owned Whole Foods is keeping an eye on stores at risk of unionizing with an elaborate, data-rich, interactive heat map. It calculates risk based on a staggering array of metrics—employee turnover, racial diversity, calls to human resources, OSHA violations, and local poverty and unemployment rates. High-risk stores, naturally, are tracked as bright red dots on a map of the United States. Not diabolical at all.
