PRESS RELEASE
Press Contact: press@athenaforall.org

STATEMENT from the Athena Coalition on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s interim report on Amazon’s deadly injury crisis:

“Today the HELP Committee released initial findings from its year-long investigation into Amazon’s injury crisis. The Committee found evidence that Amazon knows its total warehouse injury rate is much higher than it has revealed to the public and regulators –– up to 45% of workers are injured during peak times like holidays and Prime Day.

• This is further evidence that Amazon’s injury rate is the result of management pressuring workers to work at unsafe speeds. What’s more, the report reveals:
• Amazon systematically underreports worker injuries by attempting to treat injuries in-house, through AMCARE, which workers report to provide inadequate care.
• Amazon routinely sends injured people back to work without sufficient treatment and fails to refer workers for necessary outside medical attention, even going as far as to explicitly discourage them from seeking outside care.
• Despite its vast resources, Amazon admits to being chronically understaffed during peak periods when the workload is much higher.
• While maintaining a market cap of $2 trillion, as one of the wealthiest corporations in the history of the world, Amazon has repeatedly failed to take meaningful steps to protect its workers. The report notes that the company could increase its hourly wages in order to recruit a sufficient workforce for peak seasons, thereby making those seasons safer for all workers.

Nobody should have to choose between a debilitating injury and paying rent. Amazon must be held accountable. 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.

We applaud Chair Sanders’ sea-changing leadership in the HELP Committee and Senators Markey, Smith, Casey, and Brown’s and Representative Norcross’s support for the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. We hope other members of Congress will take the injury crisis at Amazon seriously after the release of this interim report and look forward to the completion of the Chair’s investigation and the release of the full findings.

Given the new information presented in the report, we urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Amazon’s statements to investors about the safety crisis, the Department of Justice to examine Amazon’s misrepresentation of injuries, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to address the company’s unsafe pace of work and pattern of discouraging injured workers from seeking outside medical care.

Ultimately, Amazon cannot be allowed to operate in this manner. By forcing people to work at an unsafe pace, discouraging workers from receiving medical attention, chronically understaffing, and union busting, Amazon has knowingly and systematically created this crisis that has impacted millions of workers. We urge Congress to use the full extent of its powers to end these practices, for Amazon and for all employers.

The stakes could not be higher. As the second largest employer in the country, Amazon’s high injury, disability, and turnover rates are taking an outsize toll on working conditions nationwide––each Prime Day that passes, more workers sustain life-changing injuries.”

QUOTES from Amazon workers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s report on Amazon’s deadly injury crisis:

“Both my mother and I were injured while working at Amazon, and we’re still dealing with the long-lasting impacts. Based on our experience at Amazon, we’re not exactly surprised that Amazon got caught lying so shamelessly to avoid actual responsibility for injuries its workers suffer. What is a shock is the gravity of Amazon’s action here. Amazon’s behavior here is truly shameful,” stated Nayeli Sulca, a member of Make the Road NJ and former Amazon worker, who spoke out yesterday (Monday 7/15) in front of Amazon’s headquarters in NYC about the lasting impacts from being injured while working for Amazon.

She continued, “We’re not just talking aches and pains here, we’re talking about conditions that have put workers’ lives at risk. Today, as this shameless behavior from Amazon comes to light, we are two years and one day from the death of Amazon worker Rafael Mota in Carteret, New Jersey, on Prime Day, who is the first of three Amazon workers to lose their life within three weeks of each other in New Jersey in 2022. Let that sink in: Three Amazon workers lost their lives on the job within three weeks of each other in just one state, and it’s my home state, where both my mother and I worked for Amazon and both dealt with significant injuries.”

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“When I applied to work at Amazon, I had seen their TV commercials and believed it would be a great place to work, a place where people worked hard and were happy with their jobs because they were supported by the company to be their best. But from my experience, none of that was true,” said Lanita Hammons, a leader with United for Respect and an Amazon associate based in Little Rock, AR who provided testimony to the Senate HELP Committee.

“The pace of work at Amazon is dangerous. When we’ve sounded the alarm about safety issues on the job, the message from management is clear: shut up and work. But I’m not going to shut up. I’m going to fight to make Amazon abide by its word when they say that the health and safety of associates comes first. This Senate investigation backs up what workers have been saying all along.”

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“Amazon’s internal documents confirm the bleak reality warehouse workers like me have known and lived for too long. Their low pay has led to insufficient staffing and placed a higher burden on the rest of us who are pushed beyond our limits. The company has seriously injured us, denied us adequate care, and tried to cover it up — and all for the sake of making a profit. That Amazon would knowingly continue to put us in danger isn’t just immoral — it’s evil,” said Chris Manno, an Amazon STL8 worker and STL8 Organizing Committee member in St. Peters, Missouri.

She continued, “No one would know about these findings if it weren’t for me and my coworkers sounding the alarm. Now, workers are uniting to take action like never before to hold Amazon accountable to higher pay and safer work. Amazon can change these things, but if they won’t, we’ll continue to call on Congress, federal agencies like OSHA and the DOJ, and investors to take action. We won’t stop fighting until we win.”

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