Private spies are said to have infiltrated an Amazon strike and secretly taken photos of workers, unionists and journalists. Now a union is taking legal action.

• Private spies, subcontractors of the infamous Pinkerton Agency of Amazon, infiltrated and photographed a labor strike in a warehouse on Friday, Friday, 2019, according to a Spanish media report.
• The spies compiled a 51-page document containing photos of unionists, workers and journalists attending the strike, according to the Spanish news site El Diario.
• In the past, Amazon used Pinkerton spies to monitor warehouse workers and labor movements at the company. According to the November report.
• The Spanish trade union CCO has asked a judge to seize documents related to the report prior to legal action against Amazon. Amazon spokesman El Diario said the e-commerce company did not instruct Pinkerton or any other company to spy on the strike.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Amazon is facing a court battle with a Spanish labor union, during which private investigators were hired to infiltrate one of its warehouses and secretly monitor it.

According to a 51-page document obtained by a Spanish news site Newspaper, Private detectives spy on Amazon workers strike at a warehouse near Barcelona on Black Friday 2019. The strike is part of a broader freight strike in the province of Catalonia.

For El Diario, the private detectives who compiled the document worked for the Spanish company Castor & Pollux, which was subcontracted by the Pinkerton agency. A November Motherboard The report revealed that Amazon is working Fingerton Agency to monitor trade union activities across Europe.

According to the El Diario report, the document also included photos of unionists, workers and journalists attending the strike.

An excerpt from the document reads: “We saw a group of people meeting and they saw the CCOO and UGT wearing the union [two Spanish workers unions] Pips / Underwear. They are recorded for possible identification in subsequent events. “It was with a photo.

Custer and Pollux declined to comment when contacted by El Diario, citing customer confidentiality. Amazon spokesman El Diario said the e-commerce company did not instruct Pinkerton or any other company to spy on the strike.

Amazon and the Fingerton agency did not respond to a request for comment. Business Insider has contacted Caster and Pollux for feedback.

The CCOO, Spain’s trade union, announced on Tuesday that it plans to take legal action against Amazon. The union has asked a judge to seize both the 51-page report, which includes El Diario, and documents showing any agreement between Custer & Pollux and Amazon, said Ricard Bellera, secretary of work and economics at Catalonia.

“Through a contracting company, Amazon wants the CCO to know the people’s full surveillance, photographs and reports prepared by the CCO workers and trade unionists. The union will evaluate with its legal services to file a criminal case against Amazon,” he said. “Union a News release.

If the report proves to be true, it further states that Amazon has violated Spain’s constitutional laws regarding assembly and data privacy.

This is not the first report of undercover operatives in the Amazon warehouse.

The Motherboard said Pinkerton agents were stationed inside a warehouse in Poland in 2019 to investigate whether management was training candidates on how to complete job interviews. During the statement, Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Lewandowski told Business Insider that the company’s partners with Pinkerton “do not collect intelligence on warehouse workers” to protect high-value exports in transit, and that all actions are “fully local”. “

Christie Hoffman, Secretary-General of the United Nations Global Union, told Business Insider in a statement that Amazon was “talking about workers who want to use their immense power and resources to improve their jobs.”

“As bad as spying on workers is, it did not come in a vacuum. There is a system here – the immense hunger for Amazon’s growth is bad for our communities. Added.

This year is Black Friday Amazon workers and action groups staged protests in fifteen countries Better pay and benefits, an end to worker and union monitoring, and against a company that demands a commitment to sustainability under the slogan “Amazon Pay”.