Amazon Prime Day is an especially dangerous time for warehouse workers, Senate report says
Amazon warehouse in Shakopee fined by OSHA
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Amazon’s annual Prime Day promotion kicked off on Tuesday, with the event offering deals for members and generating billions in revenue for the retailer. It can also raise the risk of getting hurt for the company’s hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers, according to a new congressional report.
Amazon warehouse workers are more than twice as likely to be injured during the Prime Day event than their industry peers, with its reportable injuries surpassing 10 per 100 workers during Prime Day 2019, according to findings released Monday by Bernie Sanders, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
“The incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon revealed in this investigation are a perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of,” Sanders said Tuesday.
had gotten hurt on the job, and 69% of them had taken unpaid time to recover in the prior month.
The ability to take days off without pay is another difficult issue for Amazon’s warehouse workers. Separate findings published in May by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago found about half of frontline warehouse workers at Amazon struggle to make ends meet, with 53% experiencing hunger in the prior three months.
“Nobody should have to choose between a debilitating injury and paying rent,” the Athena Coalition, an advocacy group that represents workers and small businesses, said Tuesday in a statement about the Sanders report. “We are grateful to the HELP Committee for heeding Amazon workers’ call for meaningful accountability for Amazon’s injury crisis, particularly during this season of extreme heat when workers are forced to work physically demanding jobs without adequate water, cool air, or breaks.”
That said, Amazon is not without its defenders. Test-preparation company PPI responded to the Senate report by tweeting that the company’s “track record of enhancing worker safety while creating hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs deserves recognition, not criticism.”
“Amazon provides jobs for more than a million Americans, and tens of millions enjoy the services the company provides,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asserted on Tuesday, calling the report “partisan and misleading.”
—The Associated Press contributed to this report
Kate Gibson
Source: cbsnews.com