30+ Civil Society Groups Call On Amazon CEO to Answer for Warehouse Safety Crisis

More than 30 workers' rights and civil society groups on Thursday accused Congress of "abdicating responsibility" it has to hundreds of thousands of Americans working in Amazon warehouses and called on lawmakers to hold congressional hearings on the corporation's worker safety crisis.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); the Senate Health, Labor, and Pensions Committee; and the House Education and Labor Committee, the groups demanded that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy be called to testify on the high rate of worker injuries and grueling pace of work at the company.

"At this time when workers across the country are speaking out and fighting for better pay, improved working conditions, and more dignity on the job, Americans are looking to you to fulfill your mandate to protect and empower workers."

"We demand that our representatives in Congress convene a hearing and hold Amazon and its CEO accountable for the ongoing safety crisis in warehouses," said Nayeli Sulca, a former employee of the company. "Congress must act now to ensure Amazon workers' lives are respected--that means strong enforcement of health and safety laws, and ensuring Amazon respects workers rights to organize."

The groups--including the Center for Popular Democracy, Mijente, Jobs With Justice, and the Athena Coalition--sent the letter a month after three workers at three different Amazon facilities in New Jersey died on the job over the course of three weeks, prompting a federal investigation. The company said publicly that it was "saddened" by the employees' deaths and released only vague information about what caused the deaths.

"Amazon should not be offering its 'thoughts and prayers'--Amazon should be taking action to protect the lives of all workers," said Sulca. "I know about Amazon's failures when it comes to health and safety because I experienced them. Luckily, I'm still here to be able to talk about it."

As the groups noted in their letter, the recent tragedies that occurred at New Jersey warehouses were not outlying events: last year, 34,000 serious injuries took place at Amazon facilities, making the company responsible for 49% of all warehouse injuries in the U.S. in 2021 even though it employed only one-third of all warehouse workers.

"In fact, year after year, Amazon leads in workplace injuries," reads the letter. "A 2019 report found that workers at Amazon suffered serious injuries at rates five times the national average for all private industries."

The letter was also sent two weeks after Amazon workers in San Bernardino, California held the first-ever work stoppage in the company's air freight division, with many complaining of heat-induced nosebleeds while working and defective air conditioning.

Such conditions make injuries more likely, said the groups, pointing to research that linked high temperatures in workplaces--compounded by strict productivity quotas at Amazon--with heat exhaustion, kidney injury, fatal heatstroke, and loss of balance and coordination.

The recent deaths and thousands of injuries at Amazon warehouses "are yet more gruesome examples of how Amazon treats workers as disposable, pushing their bodies to the brink--and even to the point of death--to maximize its profits," said Rebecca Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. "Even as the injuries and deaths mount, Amazon executives have continued with business as usual. It is clear that they will not take meaningful action unless pushed."

On Twitter, the Athena Coalition expressed hope that the ongoing investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will "mandate significant changes to Amazon's unsafe management practices," but said Congress must take action as well.

In addition to its failure to make its workplaces safer--even as it claims to be "Earth's Safest Place to Work"--Amazon has actively obstructed policymakers and the public from gaining knowledge about conditions at its warehouses.

A 2015 OSHA investigation found the company failed to record more than two dozen employee injuries--making it possible that the extent of the ongoing crisis in Amazon warehouses is not yet known.

The company also "failed to produce" key documents related to the deaths of six workers last December at a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, when the House Oversight Committee requested them. The employees were killed when a tornado hit the facility, after reportedly being ordered to stay at work during the storm.

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Four labor unions called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Jassy's "false and misleading statements about the company's injury rates to shareholders," the groups wrote Thursday.

The worker safety crisis at Amazon is egregious enough to require "a public emergency congressional hearing," said the groups, with lawmakers "asking questions of the individuals responsible for the dangerous labor practices that are causing these injuries and deaths, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy."

"At this time when workers across the country are speaking out and fighting for better pay, improved working conditions, and more dignity on the job," they added, "Americans are looking to you to fulfill your mandate to protect and empower workers."