Amazon Employees Should Probably Unionize, Safety Report Says

The report is based on interviews about psychological and economic stress, as well as occupational pain and injuries, with 145 workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y. As a result, NYCOSH concluded Amazon prioritizes productivity over workplace health and safety.

For example, the committee said 80% of Amazon warehouse workers feel pressure to work harder and/or faster. One employee in Staten Island said the quota system requires them to handle at least 2,000 units per day, which works out to four items a minute. In addition, to boost efficiency, NYCOSH said Amazon has software to optimize product storage and travel routes for pickers, but it doesn’t necessarily have workers’ best interests in mind.

“Analysis of such models show that, too often, they prioritize management-oriented efficiency criteria at the expense of human factors, such as worker health and safety concerns,” the report said.

The study also found the majority of workers in Staten Island are experiencing some kind of discomfort:

• 66% said they have experienced physical pain while performing work duties;
• 63% have had their sleep negatively impacted as a result of their employment;
• 42% have sustained a physical injury on the job; and
• 42% have experienced pain when they were not at work.

In addition, 18% of workers at Amazon’s Staten Island facility said they’d been injured as a result of their work, which NYCOSH noted is triple the average of warehouses nationwide.

“NYCOSH’s report shows the impacts at just one facility, in just its first year of operating,” wrote Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, in a statement. “Operating at speeds where ‘80% of workers feel pressured’ means Amazon needs to hire more workers, under more sustainable speeds that don’t put worker’s lives in jeopardy. Amazon needs to understand that human beings are not robots.”

A spokesperson for Amazon said the Staten Island facility has 4,500 employees, so NYCOSH surveyed less than 3% of its workforce there. In a statement, Amazon said NYCOSH is a “a union led organization run by private committees focused on generating false narratives in an effort to create interest and potential revenue for the unions they serve” and included “selective data skewed to support false statements by an organization that’s sole business objective is to misinform the public on Amazon’s safety record.”

Nevertheless, the report cites research that has shown workers who perform handling tasks in warehouses—including order picking and stocking, bending, reaching overhead, lifting and pushing and pulling loads—are more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal disorders given the forceful exertions, repetitive motions, twisting, bending and awkward postures therein.

In fact, one worker cited in the report described working in an Amazon warehouse as “a full body workout, all day, every day.”

In Adweek’s own tour of a warehouse in Edison, N.J., we saw vending machines throughout, which our tour guide said housed free products like box cutters and gloves to help employees do their jobs. However, a recent profile in the New Yorker said these vending machines also carry over-the-counter painkillers—and employees line up for them.

In response to calls for reform in Amazon warehouses earlier this year, a spokesperson encouraged skeptics to book a tour to see Amazon’s warehouses for themselves. Amazon reiterated this sentiment in response to the NYCOSH report.

To be fair, Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 last year, which it followed with a $700 million program to “upskill” 100,000 U.S. employees. But warehouse workers continue to stage walkouts over issues like workplace safety and scheduling.

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