Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released an interim report as part of the sweeping investigation he launched into Amazon’s unacceptable corporate greed and abysmal workplace safety practices.
As part of this report, Sanders is making public, for the first time, internal company data showing that almost half of all warehouse workers at Amazon – the second largest corporation in America worth over $2 trillion – suffered injuries during Prime Day week in 2019.
“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,” said Sanders.
“Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and providing its CEO with over $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and wellbeing,” said Sanders. “That is unacceptable and that has got to change. Amazon must be held accountable for the horrendous working conditions at its warehouses and substantially reduce its injury rates.”
Internal Amazon documents released in this report show that Amazon’s total injury rate, which includes injuries that the company is not required to disclose to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was nearly 45 injuries per 100 workers during the week of Prime Day in 2019.
“In 2023, Amazon reported 4.7 injuries per 200,000 working hours at its global facilities, compared with 5.1 injuries per 200,000 working hours the year before. In 2019, Amazon’s report showed 6.7 injuries per 200,000 working hours globally,” said Lisa McCormick, a New Jersey worker’s advocate who claims this incremental progress is insufficient.
“The 200,000 in the formula represents the number of hours that 100 employees working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year would work,” explained McCormick. “This measure is used to provide a consistent rate per 100 full-time employees (FTE) and Amazon’s is still almost double the average 2.7 incident rate in private industries.”
Its rate of “recordable” injuries – injuries the company is required to disclose to OSHA – was more than double the industry average, with over 10 injuries per 100 workers during that same period.
“Amazon employs one-third of all warehouse workers in the U.S., but it is responsible for nearly one-half of all injuries in the warehouse industry,” said McCormick.
Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls and Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien recently announced that the online merchandiser’s roughly 8,000 warehouse workers bargaining unit has formally affiliated with the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
“Together we are creating an unstoppable movement to take on Amazon,” O’Brien said. “Amazon is far and away the greediest of American corporations. It does the most harm to American workers in delivery and logistics.”
“As we now combine forces with one of the most powerful unions in the country to take on Amazon together,” said Smalls. “Our message is clear. We want a contract and we want it now. We are putting Amazon on notice that we are coming. It is time to bargain.”
This report draws on the HELP Committee Majority Staff’s interviews with more than 100 Amazon workers over the course of the investigation.
It details those workers’ experiences in Amazon’s warehouses, including the pressure they face to meet demand during Prime Day and the holiday season, and demonstrates the company’s blatant disregard for the safety of its workers.
This report outlines how the company’s documented history of medical mismanagement and under-recording of injuries suggest that even this staggeringly high rate of recordable injuries is less than the true number of serious injuries that workers sustain on the job.
The report cites OSHA documentation of Amazon’s pattern of providing on-site first aid to injured workers – even seriously injured workers – instead of referring those workers to outside medical providers for needed care.
It also notes that OSHA has cited Amazon for failing to properly record injuries based on federal or state record-keeping regulations in at least 20 facilities since 2019.
This report also demonstrates that Amazon is aware of an understaffing problem at its warehouses, including during Prime Day – meaning during these periods, workers are expected to work even harder, for longer hours, without the appropriate amount of support for that workload.
This understaffing increases the already unacceptable risk of injuries for Amazon workers.
Earlier this month, Amazon held its annual Prime Day event, where it discounts products for Amazon Prime subscribers. The event is a major source of revenue for the company. In 2023, Amazon recorded$12.7 billion in sales for 375 million products over two days.