Bernie Sanders announces Senate investigation into Amazon labor, safety practices

Amazon labor investigation overview: 

• Who: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has informed Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a letter that an investigation will take place into the conditions of Amazon warehouses and the company’s compliance with workplace safety laws. 
• Why: Sanders said the investigation will look into the “dangerous and illegal conditions at Amazon’s warehouses.” 
• Where: Amazon has factories across the U.S.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced an investigation last week into the conditions of Amazon warehouses and the company’s compliance with workplace labor safety laws. 

Sanders, in a letter addressed to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last week, wrote the investigation will focus on looking into the “dangerous and illegal conditions at Amazon’s warehouses.”

“The company’s quest for profits at all costs has led to unsafe physical environments, intense pressure to work at unsustainable rates, and inadequate medical attention for tens of thousands of Amazon workers every year,” Sanders wrote in the letter. 

Sanders, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, alleged conditions at Amazon’s warehouses are “uniquely dangerous,” and that on-site medical clinics “undertreat and underreport” workplace injuries. 

The senator accuses Amazon of “pushing workers past their limits” and then “discarding them when they are no longer useful.” 

“In its endless pursuit of profits, Amazon sacrifices workers’ bodies under the constant pressure of a surveillance system that enforces impossible rates,” Sanders wrote. 

Amazon repeatedly cited by OSHA for safety violations, Sanders says

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have also “repeatedly” cited Amazon for “egregious violations of workplace safety laws,” according to the letter. 

Sanders argues OSHA, since 2015, has issued Amazon 50 citations for violating workplace and health and safety laws, in addition to at least 30 hazard alert letters. 

“OSHA has offered Amazon a number of ways to address these unsafe conditions, such as making workstations adjustable and reducing the pace of work. But Amazon has chosen to disregard the vast majority of OSHA’s recommendations,” Sanders wrote. 

Sanders has asked Amazon to provide a number of information, including a 2021 report relating to employee turner, its communications about safety measures and physical hotline information, and the estimated cost of putting certain recommended safety measures in place, among other things. 

In a statement, Amazon said it has looked over Sanders’ letter and “strongly disagrees” with his assertions, NBC News reports. 

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Washington ordered Amazon.com to turn over ergonomic data and set other deadlines as part of the company’s compliance with an OSHA safety probe. 

Are you concerned with potential workplace safety violations at Amazon’s warehouse facilities? Let us know in the comments.

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