We live in a world in which giant multinationals like Amazon are no longer satisfied with selling and making huge profits by monopolizing entire sectors, but instead want, in addition to labor, also the minds of the new generations in a way of brutal loyalty. Bezos’s company, in fact, is laying the groundwork for a gradual replacement of public and state prerogatives.
Amazon is everywhere: it is already your boss, your supermarket, your television and your Internet. Now it wants to be your school too.
Classes and courses in institutes. Amazon is quietly funding high school classes that teach students how to work at Amazon, in a California county where it is already the largest employer. The course, Amazon Logistics and Business Management Pathway, is intended to help students get a head start on a career in logistics. The curriculum, anything but impartial, proposes techniques used within the colossus as models that cannot be changed but only implemented.
Therefore, the programs address the principles of Taylorism, prevailing in the scientific management of Amazon’s work aimed at maximum production efficiency. They also focus on the study of Maslow’s pyramid of needs and how it can be used to increase the efficiency of workers. Another topic on the agenda: union organization, or rather, the lack of it.
The classroom has no windows, emulating logistics centers (accustoming the students despite the unhealthiness) so when the teenagers get bored they can look at the colorful walls and repeat the loop reading of “Customer obsession”,”BIAS for action” , “Deliver Results” pic.twitter.com/DbAov4c2d2
— Keys (@pau_llaves) February 3, 2022
The infrastructure. Amazon has donated 50,000 euros to provide the necessary materials to start the program. And, apparently, to do some infrastructure redecoration. The classrooms for the program are painted with the yellow characteristic of the company and different murals with the Amazon leadership principles: “CUSTOMER OBSESSION”, “BIAS BY ACTION”, “DELIVERY OF RESULTS”, adorn the walls. Last year, journalist Erica Hayasaki, who recounted his visit to the Amazon incubator in tweetsit read: “The classroom is designed to emulate the interior of an Amazon factory.”
According to Hayasaki, students were even encouraged to wear polo shirts that resemble uniforms. Eric Nilsson, an economics professor at Cal State University San Bernardino, one of the institutions that helped develop the curriculum, explained that it is “concerning” that students are being exposed to Amazon propaganda within what he called “a sanctuary for Amazon”.
Where? While it’s dystopian enough that Amazon is funding employee training programs for minors inside a public high school, the location of the school is also concerning. San Bernardino County and neighboring Riverside County are home to 14 fulfillment centers, two air hubs, and more than 40,000 Amazon employees. The number of employees in the region has also doubled in the last four years.
There, Amazon is everywhere: the brand’s trucks and vans clog local streets. Job opportunities at Amazon are seemingly limitless. Cal State San Bernardino students often work shifts at Amazon to pay for college. According to a 2019 report from the Economic Roundtable, 62% of Amazon employees in the greater Los Angeles region rely on some form of government assistance.
What theme is given? “The goal is for students to graduate ready to be hired in that industry,” said Corina Borsuk, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Unified School District, in this Vice article. The plan is an educational project that “sparks student interest, creates an intentional learner, and provides a deep understanding and appreciation of the logistics community,” as well as “training” teachers on “how to establish and develop an effective industry partnership.” with Amazon.”
One unit focuses on “worker motivation.” A team activity prompts students to “brainstorm ways you could motivate your employees in addition to big bonuses and high pay.” Students also learn about unions during the unit “Management of human resources and labor relations”, which includes questions such as “What is a union and how is it organized, what is collective bargaining and key bargaining issues. Amazon, we have already discussed it in Magnet, is famous for its various anti-union activities at the international level.
The power. While it’s not Amazon’s first foray into education — the company has sponsored several STEM-building programs in middle and high schools — it’s unique in that it teaches students specifically about working for Amazon in an area where the company has already saturated the labor market. It’s all very reminiscent of the 2018 black comedy “Sorry to bother you,” but instead of company towns, Amazon is building company education. We saw it coming and we will continue to see it.