Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Tuesday accused Amazon of “corporate greed” and released a report ahead of the company’s Prime Day sale that found nearly half of Amazon’s frontline workers were injured at the same sale in 2019.
according to To the interim report According to a report released Monday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), which Sanders chairs, more than 10 injuries per 100 workers were reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) during Amazon’s 2019 Prime Day week, more than double the industry average.
But when looking at Amazon’s overall injury rate, which includes employees who are not required to report to OSHA, the report found that there were just under 45 injuries for every 100 workers.
The HELP Committee’s report, the result of a year-long investigation into Amazon’s working conditions, was released on the eve of this year’s Prime Day, a two-day discount event for Amazon Prime members that runs from Tuesday to Wednesday. This year marks the 10th annual Prime Day event.
“The incredibly unsafe working conditions at Amazon revealed by this investigation are a perfect example of corporate greed that the American people are fed up with,” Sanders said. In a statement Tuesday. “Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and paying its CEO more than $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its employees as disposable and with a complete disregard for their safety and well-being.”
The report includes interviews with more than 100 Amazon employees conducted over the past year.
“Not only did these workers confirm that the company set unsustainable productivity requirements and that serious injuries were frequent, but they also told Committee staff that Amazon’s busiest times, Prime Day and the holiday season, were by far the most dangerous,” the report said.
While Amazon experiences large increases in orders during Prime Day and the holiday season, it requires warehouse workers to “move faster” and work longer hours or extra shifts, what the company called “mandatory overtime,” workers told the committee.
The report also said Amazon has circumvented or ignored “important safety protocols.”
In a statement to The Hill, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the safety and health of employees “is and will always be our top priority” and “prioritizes everything we do.”
Nantel said the company has made “great progress” in reducing its accident rate – those requiring more than basic first aid – by 28 percent and its lost-time accident rate, which includes serious injuries that require employees to miss at least a day of work, by 75 percent.
“We have cooperated with this investigation and provided thousands of pages of information and documents, but unfortunately this report (which was not shared with us prior to its release) ignores our progress and paints a one-sided and false narrative using only a small portion of the information we provided,” Nantel wrote.
“The report draws sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based on unverified anecdotes and misrepresents a years-old document that contains factual errors and flawed analysis,” she added.
Amazon also denied the report’s allegation that the company doesn’t adequately staff its stores during busy periods, calling it “not true” and saying that the company “carefully plans and staffs large events.” Annual Safety Report “A true understanding of the facts” regarding the company’s records.
Sanders, who has served as chair of the HELP Committee since January 2023, has made fighting unfair labor practices a focus of his work in the Senate.
In addition to Amazon, Sanders has repeatedly attacked management at coffee chain Starbucks over widespread allegations of illegal union-busting tactics at the company.
Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would establish a standard four-day workweek in the United States, with no cuts in wages.
The bill would reduce the overtime pay standard from 40 to 32 hours over a four-year period, and require overtime pay of 1.5 times a worker’s regular rate of pay for any workday over 8 hours, and 2 times a worker’s regular rate of pay for any workday over 12 hours.
