Same Day Injury: Amazon Fails to Deliver Safe Jobs
Three years after Amazon pledged to make the company “Earth’s Safest Place to Work” by cutting its total injury rate in half by 2025, a new analysis from the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) shows the retail giant has reduced its overall injury rate by less than two percent. Drawing on newly released data, SOC also finds that injury levels at Amazon warehouses increased by as much as 59 percent during the company’s 2023 peak operational periods, including Prime Day and Cyber Monday.
The SOC’s analysis of Amazon’s own injury data, released by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), finds that the company’s operations continue to be dramatically more dangerous for workers than the rest of the warehouse industry.
“Amazon has sought to present itself as a company that has seen the light on workplace safety and one that is willing to use its vast resources toward self-reform,” states the report. “The company’s actual performance and behavior, however, show that Amazon’s management is not willing to prioritize worker safety over production speed and profits.”
Amazon’s failure to address the rampant safety issues at its warehouses despite its continued record profits, including $30 billion in profits in 2023, makes clear Amazon management has chosen to focus on production speed and other priorities rather than addressing its injury crisis.