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Work
Shouldn't
Hurt

Every month, thousands of Amazon workers suffer life-changing injuries on the job. These unsafe working conditions are a direct result of Amazon forcing people to work at unsafe speeds through constant surveillance and threat of termination.

In a 2023 survey, over 40% of Amazon workers reported getting hurt on the job. And, 2024 OSHA data shows that Amazon warehouses are nearly twice as dangerous as other warehouses.

A Senate committee investigated the injury crisis and found that Amazon knows about the link between speed and injury risk, but has dismissed internal recommendations to slow the pace of work, reduce speed-related discipline, and allow for breaks.

As part of the investigation, employees in the warehouse first-aid clinics (known as AMCARE) reported that Amazon told them to do everything in their power to prevent injured workers from seeing a doctor. The Department of Justice is currently investigating “whether Amazon appropriately reported on-the-job injuries.”

Amazon workers across the globe have organized under the banner “We are not robots.” Join us as we push to ban worker surveillance, push for stronger safety protections, and support workers who are leading the fight to change these poor management practices.

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Amazon’s Failures

In 2021, Jeff Bezos pledged to make Amazon the “Earth’s Best Employer.” Since then, Amazon hasn’t fixed its unsafe workplace conditions or high injury rates. Its facilities remain the most dangerous in the industry.

We Can Stop Amazon

Without pushback from the public, Amazon’s practices risk becoming the new industry standard. Workers are fighting back, unionizing and exercising their right to a safe workplace. Together we can end Amazon’s high-tech sweatshop model.

Join workers in calling on public officials to put the following measures in place:

1. End the high-tech sweatshop model

We need state and federal laws that prevent employers from forcing an unsafe pace of work through surveillance and threat of termination. States like CA, NY, MN and WA have already taken action, and members of Congress have introduced legislation, but we need more public officials to stand up to corporations like Amazon.

2. Modernize regulation and enforcement

Agencies should strengthen and enforce standards that ensure Amazon’s model does not become standard. As a start, we need standards that protect workers from an unsafe pace of work, extreme temperatures, ergonomic risks, and surveillance practices that undermine job quality.

3. Strengthen labor law

The power imbalance between workers and employers is degrading job quality at Amazon and beyond, and we need to remove obstacles that prevent workers from unionizing and reaching agreements with their employers.

A big reason Amazon workers are organizing around the country is to end the injury crisis at the company. So far, Amazon has failed to listen to them, and has refused to negotiate a contract with unionized workers. If this wasn’t bad enough, Amazon, SpaceX and Trader Joe’s are working to dismantle the power of the National Labor Relations Board itself.

Resources for Workers

To make Amazon safer, you can exercise the rights you already have. Here are some fact sheets to make that easier.

Supporters

Athena Coalition
Alliance for a Greater New York
Action Center on Race and the Economy
Awood Center
Demand Progress Education Fund
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Fight for the Future
Philadelphia Jobs with Justice
MPower Change
Make the Road New Jersey
MediaJustice
Muslim Counterpublics Lab
National Employment Law Project
National Legal Advocacy Network
New York Communities for Change
Organizers in the Land of Enchantment
Open Markets Institute
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
United We Dream
United for Respect
Warehouse Worker Resource Center
Access Now
Line Break
Missouri Workers Center
Sum of Us
Warehouse Workers for Justice

References

The Public Health Crisis Hidden in Amazon Warehouses, Research Brief & Fact Sheets from Human Impact Partners, January 2021

Primed for Pain: Amazon’s Epidemic of Workplace Injuries, Strategic Organizing Center, May 2021

Injuries, Dead-End Jobs, and Racial Inequity in Amazon’s Minnesota Operations, National Employment Law Project, December 2021

Amazon’s Policing Power: A Snapshot from Bessemer, Rutgers University, Michigan State University, and The Roosevelt Institute, February 2022

The Injury Machine: How Amazon’s Production System Hurts Workers, Strategic Organizing Center, April 2022

The Worst Mile: Production Pressure and the Injury Crisis in Amazon’s Delivery System, Strategic Organizing Center, May 2022

Fact-Checking Amazon’s Bogus Workplace Health and Safety Claims, National Employment Law Project, May 2022

Monitored: How Amazon Undermines the Safety of Workers and Our Communities, Athena, May 2022

Warehousing Pain: Amazon Worker Injury Rate Skyrockets with Company’s Rapid Expansion in New York State, National Employment Law Project, May 2022

In Denial: Amazon’s Continuing Failure to Fix Its Injury Crisis, Strategic Organizing Center, April 2023

Disabling: How Amazon Fails Associates with Workplace Accommodations, United for Respect, July 2023

A Good Living: Amazon Can and Must Make a Middle-Income Livelihood Possible for the People Who Work in Its Warehouses, National Employment Law Project, September 2023

Pain Points: Data on Work Intensity, Monitoring, and Health at Amazon Warehouses, University of Illinois Chicago, October 2023

Tracked and Targeted: Navigating Worker Surveillance at Amazon, Our Data Bodies, January 2024

Same Day Injury: Amazon Fails to Deliver Safe Jobs, Strategic Organizing Center, May 2024

Handling Hardship: Data on Economic Insecurity Among Amazon Warehouse Workers, University of Illinois Chicago, May 2024

Amazon’s Outsized Role: The Injury Crisis in U.S. Warehouses and a Policy Roadmap to Protect Workers, National Employment Law Project, May 2024

Peak Seasons, Peak Injuries: Amazon Warehouses Are Especially Dangerous During Prime Day and the Holiday Season—and the Company Knows It, United States Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee, Amazon Investigation Interim Report, July 2024

Workplace Safety and Health: OSHA Should Take Steps to Better Identify and Address Ergonomic Hazards at Warehouses and Delivery Companies, United States Government Accountability Office, October 2024

The “Injury-Productivity Trade-off”: How Amazon’s Obsession with Speed Creates Uniquely Dangerous Warehouses, United States Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee, Amazon Investigation Final Report, December 2024