Amazon responsible for half of injuries in US warehouses in 2021 – Orange News

AFP, published on Wednesday April 13, 2022 at 6:19 p.m. Amazon employs a third of employees working in warehouses in the United States, but nearly half of work accidents in this type of site occurred at the e-commerce giant in 2021 , according to a report published Tuesday by a coalition of unions. According to the Strategic organizing center (SOC), workers at Amazon’s logistics centers suffered more than 34,000 “serious injuries” in their workplaces last year, twice as high as that of non-Seattle group US warehouses.” After relaxing some of its disciplinary methods during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon reinstated its control systems the pressure on production at the end of 2020, and the injury rate increased considerably in stride”, indicates the SOC. . Asked by AFP, Amazon explained this situation by the need to quickly hire “tens of thousands of people to meet the unforeseen demand” linked to the health crisis. “Like other companies in the industry, we have seen an increase in accidents between 2020 and 2021, when we were training so many new people”, detailed Wednesday Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the group. “However, when you compare 2021 to 2019, our workplace injury rate was down 13% year over year.” in 2021, and from about 200,000 employees in 2017 to more than 560,000 in 2021, according to this report based on data provided by Amazon to OSHA, the federal agency responsible for the prevention of accidents at work. In June 2021, Amazon had reviewed working conditions in this country, in particular by extending breaks for its workers responsible for preparing packages, shipping them and delivering them. This decision came after the previous damning report from the SOC, and an attempt to unionization at a company warehouse in Alabama. This had failed, but the campaign had exposed the pace of work deemed infernal by many employees. “We must do better for our employees”, wrote Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, in his annual letter to the shareholders.”We are going to be the best employer and the safest place to work on Earth”, he had promised, referring in particular to the measures already taken or being deployed to reduce the risks of musculoskeletal disorders related to the tasks “We still have work to do and we won’t be satisfied until we are excellent in terms of safety, but we continue to make visible progress”, added Kelly Nantel. Employees of the site say “JFK8” to New York voted in majority at the end of March for the creation of a union, a first in an American warehouse of Amazon.