Amazon posted — and then deleted — a job listing for an 'intelligence analyst' to monitor workers' efforts to unionize

• Amazon posted a job listing this week for an "intelligence analyst" tasked with monitoring workers' efforts to unionize and reporting back to top executives at the company.
• The analyst's job duties would also include gathering information for use in Amazon's legal actions, including restraining orders against labor groups, according to the listing.
• Amazon deleted the job listing on Tuesday after Business Insider reached out for comment. It was shared widely by labor activists on social media before being taken down.

In a now-deleted job listing posted this week, Amazon advertised that it's looking to hire an "intelligence analyst" tasked with duties including snooping on workers' unionization efforts and reporting back to executives about their findings.

It's a sign of Amazon's escalating fight to stop its workers from organizing. The company has previously turned to unorthodox methods to quash unionization — its subsidiary Whole Foods built a heat map tool specifically for tracking unionization threats, Business Insider reported in April.

The job listing described the role as focused on "labor organizing threats against the company," as well as gathering material for Amazon's legal action against labor groups who protest the company.

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"Individual analysts will work directly with Sr. Corporate Counsel to compile and provide assessments for use in court filings, up to and including restraining orders against activist groups; intelligence assessments are used by Legal to demonstrate to court of law that activist groups harbor intent for continued illegal activity vis-à-vis Amazon," the listing said.

The position also includes other responsibilities, including gathering information about competitors, geopolitical issues, and even "terrorism" threats that could inform Amazon's decisions. The analyst would also be expected to create "bespoke risk methodologies" tailored to Amazon's various business units.

An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the job listing was taken down shortly after Business Insider contacted Amazon. The listing was shared widely on Twitter Tuesday morning before it was deleted.

—Joe Slowik (@jfslowik) September 1, 2020

The job description says the analyst would be responsible for communicating with managers at various levels of Amazon's chain of command, including regional managers, company vice presidents, and everything in between. Those positions are referred to as "L6-10 stakeholders" in the listing, referencing Amazon's leadership tiers.

"Analysts must be capable of engaging and informing L7+ ER Principals (attorney stakeholders) on sensitive topics that are highly confidential, including labor organizing threats against the company, establish and track funding and activities connected to corporate campaigns (internal and external) against Amazon, and provide sophisticated analysis on these topics," the listing said.

Labor organizing among Amazon workers has been gradually gaining steam in recent months. Warehouse workers organized at least four strikes this year, motivated in part to protest Amazon's mandatory overtime policy and working conditions amid COVID-19 that they said were unsafe. (Amazon denied this.)

Since then, Amazon fired at least three workers who were outspoken critics of the company's labor conditions during the pandemic, leading a high-ranking engineer at the company to resign in protest. Amazon has maintained that the workers were fired for other infractions, not for criticizing its labor practices.