Amazon Workers Sustained Half of US Warehouse Injuries in 2021

Nearly half of all recorded accidents in US warehouses final yr occurred at Amazon, based on a report launched Tuesday by a coalition of unions. The e-commerce large has boomed through the pandemic with hovering dwelling supply demand, however has additionally confronted criticism over staff’ situations and its labour practices.

“Amazon employed one-third of all warehouse workers in the US, but it was responsible for nearly one-half (49 percent) of all injuries in the warehouse industry,” based on the report by the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC).

The SOC report mentioned US Amazon staff sustained greater than 34,000 “serious injuries” on the job final yr, a charge greater than twice as excessive as that at warehouses not owned by the corporate.

Amazon acknowledged a rise within the variety of accidents as tens of hundreds of workers joined its workforce, however argued the speed at which its individuals obtained harm had declined.

“Like other companies in the industry, we saw an increase in recordable injuries during this time from 2020 to 2021 as we trained so many new people,” the corporate mentioned.

“However, when you compare 2021 to 2019, our recordable injury rate declined more than 13 percent year over year,” it added.

The coalition mentioned it depends on knowledge supplied by Amazon to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration — the federal company liable for stopping office accidents.

“After relaxing some of its discipline systems in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon reimplemented its monitoring systems and production pressures in late 2020, and its injury rates rose substantially,” the SOC mentioned.

Hiring at Amazon has spiked through the pandemic.

In the United States, the corporate has gone from some 700 websites in 2020 to greater than 900 in 2021, and from greater than 200,000 workers in 2017 to over 560,000 in 2021, based on the report.

In June 2021, Amazon modified working situations, together with longer breaks for its staff who put together, ship and ship packages.

That resolution got here after a earlier damning SOC report, and an try to unionise at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama. That failed, however the marketing campaign uncovered what many workers described as the corporate’s intense tempo.

“We need a better vision for our employees’ success,” wrote Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in an annual letter to shareholders in 2020.

“We are going to be Earth’s Best Employer and Earth’s Safest Place to Work,” he promised.

But “in stark contrast to Jeff Bezos’ recent pledge… the injury rate at Amazon facilities increased by 20 percent between 2020 and 2021,” the SOC mentioned.

Amazon staff in New York have voted to launch the primary US union on the e-commerce large, an underdog upset in opposition to an organization that has steadfastly opposed organised labour in its large workforce.