Walmart had hired companies such as Lockheed Martin, which provides aerospace, defense and security services, as reported by Bloomberg, to collect open source intelligence in relation to the mass protests taking place on the occasion of Black Friday.
The retail giant has a long and troubled history with protests and hired a specialist from security to monitor its workers, prompted by the arrival of the big discount day.
The organizers of OUR Walmart, the organization that supports workers' rights, encouraged employees to take part in the mobilization to protest the poor wages that force many workers to rely on supplemental government assistance for clothing, food, and housing.
The allegations were found in more than 1,000 pages of emails, reports and testimony gathered ahead of a National Labor Relations Board meeting between OUR Walmart and the giant company and ultimately provided to Bloomberg Business Week.
Lockheed Martin sells LM Wisdom, a service for collecting open source intelligence but it is not known whether the retail company has purchased it.
surveillance collected information about OUR Walmart's actions, including disruptions at various stores. It also included a map of how the 5 bus protesters would get from their starting point to the stores.
The monitoring allowed the company to stay ahead of certain protests, to prevent some attempts at disruption, and to ensure that management would record the efforts of the Workers' Union.
According to a Walmart report after Black Friday, strike mobilizations this year fell from 214 last year to 203, sudden riots dropped sharply from 76 to 10, and flyers fell from 131 to 96.
