(WASHINGTON, DC)––This afternoon, Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Bob Casey, and Sen. Tina Smith introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, a bill that would protect all warehouse workers, drivers, subcontractors, and “temp” workers by requiring quota transparency, limiting surveillance, and securing worker rights to organize. This federal bill builds on statewide bills that workers have advocated for in New York, California, Minnesota, and Washington, and directly responds to Amazon’s worker safety crisis.

A new report out today from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) highlights Amazon’s outsized role in the warehouse injury crisis: despite Amazon Founder and Chairman Jeff Bezos’ public commitment to make Amazon “Earth’s Safest Place to Work”, the serious injury rate at Amazon warehouses in 2021 was more than twice as high as the rate at non-Amazon warehouses across the country.

“Last March, I was injured at Amazon. Because of the exhausting pace and the physical work me and my coworkers do, I tripped and fell flat on my face over a misplaced pallet. Disoriented, with a busted lip and a throbbing knee I could barely stand on, I went to AmCare, the company’s medical clinic. They refused to send me to a doctor when I asked, sending me back to my job. My own doctor later confirmed I’d torn my meniscus,” stated Wendy Taylor, an Amazon warehouse worker and member of the STL8 organizing committee and Missouri Workers Center. “Amazon workers provide the world with same-day shipping, but as workers we can’t even get same-day quality healthcare from the company when we’re seriously injured on the job. Congress must pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act or else thousands more workers will face unnecessary injuries, disability, and death from a company with more than enough resources to prevent them.”

These unsafe conditions are preventable, and are a direct result of Amazon’s punitive management practices that use constant surveillance and threat of termination to push workers to the breaking point; the company’s use of retaliation and union busting that intimidates workers who advocate for safer conditions; and the high-turnover model that prioritizes profit over safety, even during natural disasters and extreme weather.

“At a time when Amazon warehouse workers like me are being injured at twice the rate as workers at other warehouses, this bill is a monumental step forward to holding companies like Amazon accountable and finally getting the workplace protections we deserve,” said Ronald “Mr. Ron” Sewell, an Amazon associate at ATL6 in Georgia and leader with United for Respect. “My coworkers and I are constantly putting our safety at risk to meet Amazon’s backbreaking productivity quotas, and we’ve had enough. Our lives are not expendable — we need real change to improve safety on the job, and this bill will help make that a reality.”

The Warehouse Worker Protection Act, when enforced, will require employers to provide transparent productivity expectations with advance notice of any changes and potential disciplinary consequences, restrict punitive surveillance and management practices, provide workers access to their own data, prohibit quotas from infringing on basic workplace rights, and establish meaningful enforcement mechanisms.

“We applaud members of Congress for standing with workers and addressing Amazon’s inexcusable safety crisis. The wealthiest corporations in the world should not be allowed to profit from pushing workers to the point of injury and leaving their families and the public to pick up the pieces. For too long, we have enabled Amazon to hollow out local economies, pollute communities, use its monopoly power to rig the rules, exploit workers, and not pay its fair share. Together we have the power to chart a different course and build an economy that works for everyone,” stated Ryan Gerety, Director of the Amazon-focused Athena Coalition.

While Amazon claims that “safety is a priority” for the corporation, the rate of turnover, reports of retaliation, and workers’ experiences in warehouses and on delivery routes tell a different story. Federal investigations into working conditions at Amazon by the Senate HELP Chair, OSHA and the DOJ are ongoing while Amazon appeals any government-issued health & safety citations.

“Amazon is responsible for the lion’s share of serious injuries in the warehousing industry and the company’s over-accelerated pace of work–enforced through a draconian electronic monitoring and disciplinary system–is at the root of the problem. We applaud the co-sponsors of the Warehouse Worker Protection Act for bringing attention to Amazon’s continued failure to change its practices and end preventable worker injuries in its warehouses,” stated Rebecca Dixon, President and CEO of the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

Due to worker organizing and advocacy, legislators are increasingly recognizing the need to add new industry-wide protections––in recognition of the fact that Amazon’s workplace practices undermine both the safety of its workers and the community at-large.

“I am a single mother, so it is up to me and my daughter to support ourselves and pay the bills, which is already a lot of pressure. On top of that, I’ve worked in warehouses for years, sometimes directly and sometimes through a staffing agency, and the constant dynamic has been that immigrant workers like me are pushed to our absolute limits. We are denied bathroom breaks, workers with health problems are threatened with dismissal, and we are given such heavy work for so long that I can barely function when the workday ends. Warehouse workers desperately need a law that reins in employers’ unreasonable production quotas and allows workers to work hard without sacrificing our physical and mental well-being,” stated Adriana Alvarez, a warehouse worker and Member-Leader of Make the Road New Jersey.