Amazon’s Warehouses Are Crappy Places to Work

Amazon warehouses are reliably reported to be dangerous workplaces, as well as sexist. If this bothers you, I suggest the unionized Powell’s Books as an alternative source for books. For other items there are often other sources, you might even (gasp!) buy something locally, but some things are simply available nowhere else.

This story is evolving, and likely to continue to do so. Places to follow it are: @spencersoper on Twitter, @TonyaJoRiley on Twitter, and The Guardian’s Amazon Diaries.

“The only injuries Amazon ever seemed to take seriously, she says, involved blood. The main concern, it seemed, was not getting stains on the merchandise.” – Mother Jones, March 19, 2019. She Injured Herself Working at Amazon, Then The Real Nightmare Began.

“A warehouse worker told her manager she was pregnant. Less than two months later, she was fired. Several lawsuits against Amazon show a similar pattern.” – Amazon fired these 7 pregnant workers. Then came the lawsuits. Cnet, May 6, 2019. Via Jobs With Justice.

The Morning Call’s collection of Amazon workplace articles. The Morning Call is a Pennsylvania newspaper, local to the Lehigh Valley Amazon warehouse.

“The 34-year-old Allentown resident, who has worked in warehouses for more than 10 years, said he quit in July because he was frustrated with the heat and demands that he work mandatory overtime. Working conditions at the warehouse got worse earlier this year, especially during summer heat waves when heat in the warehouse soared above 100 degrees” – Inside Amazon’s Warehouse, Sept. 18, 2011

“It was frigid outside -- the temperature dipped into the 20s – and many employees left the building without coats. Some were wearing only T-shirts and shorts or jeans. […] Grady said his request was denied and he was forced to remain outside without a coat for about three hours […] When he returned to work for his next shift, he said, he was in so much pain he only worked a few hours before he asked managers if he could see a doctor. Warehouse managers summoned an ambulance. – Amazon workers left out in the cold, Nov 06, 2011.

“Months after she suffered heat exhaustion and lost her job in an Amazon.com warehouse in Breinigsville, Rosemarie Fritchman sat in a small conference room pleading for unemployment benefits of about $160 a week.” – Amazon warehouse workers fight for unemployment when jobs end, Dec 17, 2012.

The Guardian has also been covering this beat; they have even started The Amazon Diaries, a collection of such stories. More links:

“A Freedom of Information request to ambulance services from the GMB union revealed 115 call-outs to Amazon’s site in Rugeley, near Birmingham [UK], including three relating to pregnancy or maternity problems and three for major trauma.” –  Amazon accused of treating UK warehouse staff like robots, 2018-05-31

Amazon robot sets off bear repellant, putting 24 workers in hospital , 2018-12-06

“Allen has become homeless after a workplace accident left her unable to do her job.” –Accidents at Amazon: workers left to suffer after warehouse injuries, 2018-07-30

“At Amazon, by contrast, we are not retail workers. We are factory workers.” – They treat us as disposable, 2018-11-21

“The manager replied, ‘If we followed those rules nothing would get done around here.’” – Hate lugging cat litter? Don't make us Amazon warehouse workers do it, 2018-12-05

“Soon the early excitement and anticipation of the first few days of peak madness have dissipated; we’re mostly just exhausted and counting down the days until it’s over.” – “A sweatshop firing on all cylinders:” what it's like to work at Amazon at Christmas, 2018-12-19

“In September, Billy Foister, a 48-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, died after a heart attack at work. According to his brother, an Amazon human resources representative informed him at the hospital that Billy had lain on the floor for 20 minutes before receiving treatment from Amazon’s internal safety responders.” – 'Go back to work': outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor, 2019-10-18

From the “buy union” site Labor411 we have:

“Amazon workers are livid over the company’s termination of an employee who spent one extra hour with her dying mother-in-law.”– Amazon Employees Protest Company’s Firing Of Worker For Spending Extra Hour With Dying Relative, 2019-10-03 

Vox:

“Amazon could face $28,000 in potential fines after an inspection by the state of Indiana found potential workplace safety violations at a warehouse where a 59-year-old worker was killed in late September […] in September, a 28-year-old worker named Devan Shoemaker was killed at an Amazon warehouse in Carlisle, Pennsylvania”–Amazon faces fines following the death of a second warehouse worker in as many months, 2019-11-09

The Atlantic weighs in:

“According to Amazon’s own records, the risk of work injuries at fulfillment centers is alarmingly, unacceptably high”–Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Maiming Employees, 2019-10-03 

Even Gizmodo:

“Since opening in September 2018, Amazon’s massive fulfillment center on New York’s Staten Island has garnered a reputation as grueling and unsafe.”–Exclusive: Amazon's Own Numbers Reveal Staggering Injury Rates at Staten Island Warehouse, 2019-10-03 

Willamette Week, Portland, Oregon's Pulitzer Prize winning weekly:

“The most dangerous facility, according to the piece, is Amazon's warehouse in Troutdale, Ore., which had a serious injury rate of 26 per 100 workers, more than six times the industry average. That's over one in four, folks.”–Amazon Warehouse in Troutdale Under Scrutiny, 2019-11-27