In Democracy at Work, labor law professor Ruth Dukes and sociologist Wolfgang Streeck describe how the dehumanizing and demanding conditions of an Amazon “fulfillment center” maximize the isolation of workers and impede the formation of any kind of community in the warehouse. Handheld devices, in addition to monitoring every minute of activity (including breaks) against target speeds, “direct workers to take routes through the warehouse designed to minimize opportunities to interact with co-workers.” The newest warehouses require workers to stand still in small, phone-booth-like boxes as conveyor belts deliver packages to be sorted; each workstation is set up so that the worker cannot talk to, or even make eye contact with, any co-worker…

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