Prime Day Brings Deals— but Also Warehouse Injuries

Amazon Prime Day is back, and the two-day sales blitz starting Tuesday brings more than deals on big-screen TVs and vacuum cleaners. A new Senate investigation finds that Prime Day also results in a slew of warehouse injuries among Amazon workers, reports the Washington Post. The yearlong review by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee focused on the year 2019 and found a rate of 10 injuries per 100 workers during Prime Day that year, which it says is more than double the industry average. Think sprains, herniated disks, and rotator cuff injuries, notes the Post.

The "extraordinarily high level of injuries ... speaks to the irresponsibility of Amazon," committee chair Bernie Sanders tells the newspaper, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Sanders added that he is considering calling Amazon execs to testify. A company spokesperson countered that safety is paramount and said the overall injury rate has improved since 2019, from 8.7 injuries per 200,000 hours to 6.3 last year. Still, a report by the National Employment Law Project finds that Amazon workers account for a disproportionate share of warehouse injuries, per a report in the Nation.

The concern is not just in the US. Global News of Canada reported ahead of this year's Prime Day that workers were worried about the extra load and potential for injuries. "We have to be fast like a robot," says Ibrahim Al Sahary, who quit his Amazon warehouse job in Montreal after a fall that resulted in four stitches to his leg. "So we say we're not robots." Advocates are calling for an independent investigation by the Canadian government. "In the last two, three years, Amazon workers are overrepresented in the people who call us to ask for help," says Felix Lapin of the Union of Injured Workers (UTTAM).