Labor organizing at chokepoints along Amazon’s supply chain: Locating geo-strategic nodes

Spencer Louis Potiker, David A. Smith, Paul S. Ciccantell, Elizabeth Sowers and Luc McKenzie
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Spencer Louis Potiker: University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
David A. Smith: University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Paul S. Ciccantell: Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
Elizabeth Sowers: CSU-Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA, USA
Luc McKenzie: University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Environment and Planning A, 2024, vol. 56, issue 5, 1521-1538

Abstract: Amazon seems to be creating a new hybrid model of capitalism combining some elements of classical Fordist vertical integration, or even the over hundred-year-old “Taylorism†of scientific management, with 21st century elements of labor “flexibility†and reliance on gig labor and subcontracting. This hybrid model offers opportunities for organized labor to gain a foothold within some of Amazon’s vertically integrated nodes as the firm lengthens its corporate commodity chain to grow increasingly close to consumers. Building on earlier work on opportunities for, and constraints on, labor in a variety of global commodity chains, our empirical cases examine how Amazon’s corporate strategies may open opportunities for labor in three illustrative cases ensconced in fulfillment centers—the Fordist vertical integration side of the model—in the Inland Empire and Otay Mesa (both in southern California) and Northern Kentucky.

Keywords: Amazon; logistics; e-commerce; chokepoints; labor; global commodity chains; Fordism; vertical integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:5:p:1521-1538

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X241228991

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