Four Amazon warehouse workers died in separate incidents over a span of less than four weeks. While the details of each death are still available, the victims turn the spotlight even stronger on a common complaint on Amazon: that it requires a brutal work rate and puts employees at risk of injury and overheating.
A series of circumstances surround the dead. Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias, 42, reportedly died of a heart attack in Carteret, New Jersey while Prime Day was underway on July 13. Another worker, Rodger Boland, died after falling off a short ladder and hitting his head in Robbinsville, New Jersey. Alex Carillo, 22, died six days after a forklift accident on August 1 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
A fourth worker, Eric Vadinsky, died after a workplace accident in Monroe Township, New Jersey on August 4. The deaths are all under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has six months to publish its findings.
Amazon expressed condolences to all the families of the deceased. “Each of these tragic incidents has greatly affected our teams and we are providing resources to the families and employees who need them”Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson said. “Our investigations are ongoing and we are collaborating with OSHA, which is conducting its own reviews of events, as it often does in these situations.”
The investigation comes at a time when Amazon is already facing inquiries from federal and state regulators on occupational safety and pushback of workers against what they say are dangerously hot workspaces. More recently, a group of workers quit their jobs at an Amazon air hub in San Bernardino, California to protest hot working conditions and pay.
The deaths also come as people reexamine Amazon’s role in their lives in light of the dangerous working conditions reported by the media, lawyers and workers themselves. A group of 70 TikTok influencers signed a pledge in August promising to close their Amazon storefronts and wishlists and to avoid entering into new agreements with Amazon to monetize their videos when users click on the Amazon marketplace.
Facts Exposed by TikTokers: Reports of excessive heat in warehouses and trucks that workers must load and unload in the sun. A photo shared by More Perfect Union, a workers rights group, shows the loading area of an Amazon truck that records an internal temperature of 63 degrees Celsius.
“Amazon treats its workers like shit”TikToker @asianlefty said in a video highlighting workers’ complaints about hot work spaces and limited water, adding that he was joining the People Over Prime Pledge.
Amazon spokesman Stephenson pointed out that the company’s warehouses are in control of the climate. “Our teams are trained to follow robust safety procedures when operating during the hottest season and our policies meet or exceed industry standards and OSHA guidelines.”he has declared.
Prevent future deaths in Amazon warehouses
It’s difficult to draw general conclusions from four deaths, said Eric Frumin, director of health and safety at the union-affiliated Strategic Organizing Center, adding that warehouse deaths are statistically rare across the industry.
However, occupational safety experts say the deaths raise questions. “One victim in the workplace is too many”said Marissa Baker, assistant professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Occupational Health.
These are also not the first victims Amazon has seen in the past 12 months. While it’s unclear exactly how many Amazon workers have died in the company’s warehouses over the years, five employees and a delivery boy employed by Amazon’s contractor died in a warehouse that collapsed during a tornado in December.
Although OSHA investigated the incident and requested Amazon to review its adverse weather policies, the deaths do not appear in two OSHA datasets that collect information on the deaths. When asked by the press, OSHA did not provide information on why the deaths were not recorded in its datasets. In a statement, Amazon said it reports all deaths to OSHA in accordance with the law.
In general, both the casualties and the injured are underreported, Baker said. “It does not mean that the data we have should be ignored or cannot be relied upon”, he has declared. But she added that more standardization is needed in the recording of accidents and deaths at work.
Frumin, the director of health and safety at the Strategic Organizing Center, added that OSHA’s investigations need to be thorough to create prevention plans for the future.
When they look into Boland’s death in Robbinsville, he said, investigators they have to ask why someone fell off a three foot ladder in the first place. While such a fall doesn’t lead to someone’s death in the future, it could still cause serious injury.
Washington state regulators have said that Amazon workers often skip the use of tools like stools or use them unsafely, because they fear they will be penalized if they slow down enough to use them properly.
For Mota Frias, who died of cardiac arrest on Prime Day, investigators will need to see if the heat and pace of work have worsened his medical emergency. Amazon denied responsibility for his death. Company spokesman Stephenson said the death “It was related to a personal medical condition”.
Amazon workers said to the Daily Beast that the area where Mota Frias worked was dangerously hot, but Stephenson said claims that heat was a causal factor are false. OSHA will also make a decision on the matter, Stephenson said, adding: “We fully expect it to reach the same conclusion”.
A heart attack at work can be work-related, even if it results from an underlying health conditionFrumin said. In addition, he said, workers who fear losing their jobs will often work despite health problems.
Frumin also believes it is worth looking into the fact that the death occurred on Prime Day, when proponents say that increased production demand leads to higher injury rates.
“This is a great alarm”Frumin said.
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