Surveillance, Spacing, Screaming and Scabbing: How Digital Technology Facilitates Union Busting
It addresses the problem of union busting for workers and organizers in digitally-mediated workplaces, but is incremental as it builds on existing understanding of counter-organizing tactics.
The paper examined how employers use digital technologies like surveillance, spacing, screaming, and scabbing to suppress unionization efforts at companies such as Amazon, Starbucks, and Boston University, analyzing their strategic deployment across contexts.
Despite high approval ratings for unions and growing worker interest in organizing, employees in the United States still face significant barriers to securing collective bargaining agreements. A key factor is employer counter-organizing: efforts to suppress unionization through rule changes, retaliation, and disruption. Designing sociotechnical tools and strategies to resist these tactics requires a deeper understanding of the role computing technologies play in counter-organizing against unionization. In this paper, we examine three high-profile organizing effort--at Amazon, Starbucks, and Boston University--using publicly available sources to identify four recurring technological tactics: surveillance, spacing, screaming and scabbing. We analyze how these tactics operate across contexts, highlighting their digital dimensions and strategic deployment. We conclude with implications for organizing in digitally-mediated workplaces, directions for future research, and emergent forms of worker resistance.