Leaked Amazon Memo Reveals Anti-Union PR Idea: Score Points by Hiring Former Inmates

Someone leaked an internal Amazon memo to Vox's Recode. The May 2021 memo "offers rare insights into the anti-union strategies of one of the world's most powerful companies," Recode writes:The memo laid out two crucial goals for Amazon: establish and deepen "relationships with key policymakers and community stakeholders" and improve "Amazon's overall brand...." To achieve these goals, the memo proposed strategies to help Amazon boost its reputation and simultaneously "neutralize" company critics by befriending these critics' own allies and by launching feel-good initiatives to turn the media and local politicians into company boosters.... Amazon staff acknowledged in the memo that the Teamsters' "economic argument is ... currently stronger," with union truck drivers, warehouse workers, and grocery store staff earning better or equal compensation packages as Amazon employees in the Southern California region the memo focused on. (A few months later, in September 2021, Amazon announced it had raised its average starting wage for front-line workers to $18 an hour, though many workers make less than that....) Amazon shrewdly planned to "intentionally seek partnerships with some organizations that work closely with our opposition." Those included organizations dedicated to helping incarcerated people find stable work upon reentry into society, such as the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Homeboy Industries, and Defy Ventures, all named in the memo.... Taken together, these proposals are an unsurprising but stark reminder that, as is the case with many corporations, Amazon's public-facing actions are overwhelmingly in service of promoting or protecting the company, often in reaction to critics demanding that the company improve its labor practices. The billboards and TV commercials selling the narrative of Amazon as a great place to work, and the PR-friendly community partnerships in towns across the country where Amazon wants to set up shop, are developed for these reasons. Altruism this is not.... Overall, the memo highlights the extent to which union-led criticisms are creating sizable obstacles to Amazon's growth plans in its most crucial US market. But they also serve as a clear reminder that the company possesses vast resources to combat critics, and cunning strategies to portray reputation makeovers as corporate benevolence.

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