Did Amazon Lie About Workplace Injuries?

There’s a lot of talk about existential threats these days. It’s kind of a hip term. And if it didn’t always accompany a potentially cataclysmic real-life scenario, it’d be downright cool.

Climate Change? Existential Threat. Perpetual flirtation with nuclear war? Existential threat. Corporate greed? Existential threat. The espresso machine on floor 7? Out of commission for cleaning, constituting, what I would argue—smugly—as an existential threat.

But with all the noise surrounding this term, what can we actually make of its meaning?

Let’s begin with a definition. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines an existential thre—LMAO. Look: if something threatens humanity’s existence or risks some sort of eventual doomsday scenario, that thing could rightfully be regarded as an existential threat. And by that measure, we probably aren’t wrong in concluding that we likely all experience some degree of this on a daily basis.

As a multinational trillion-dollar company whose practices are contributing to the destruction of the planet, Amazon is surely a worthy addition to the list.

Amazon has long been a threat to wholesale brands and local retailers. But it’s becoming increasingly clear how the cooperation’s conduct is harming common people.

Amazon’s Alleged False Statements About Workplace Safety

The latest bit in Amazon’s long-form practical joke on the Spirit of Humanity comes in the form of “repeated false and misleading statements concerning the company’s health and safety performance.”

The allegations have been made by the Strategic Organizing Center, a pro-union organization. The SOC cites Andy Jassy’s 2021 letter to shareholders, which said Amazon is “about average” in the number of workplace injuries compared to its industry peers. 

The problem is: the SOC claims Jassy, Amazon’s reigning President and CEO since 2021, used data from 2020 instead of 2021, when Amazon’s warehouse injury rate increased by 20%.

This is, of course, a significant occurrence for two reasons:

1. Lying is wrong and bad
2. Shareholders use reports such as workplace injuries to make important investment decisions

Regarding the latter: the alleged false claims led multinational investment management corporation BlackRock to vote against a shareholder proposal.

“BlackRock’s statement indicates a prominent and sophisticated investor relied on Amazon’s misstatements to inform how it voted its Amazon shares,”

the SOC complaint reads.

Amazon’s Concerning Workplace Injury Track Record

Amazon’s warehouse injury rates have consistently been around more than double the national average for the last five years.

In 2021, injuries at amazon warehouses accounted for almost half of all warehouse injuries in the U.S., according to a new analysis of federal warehouse safety data from the Strategic Organizing Center. Amazon also saw an increase in workplace injuries by about 20% from 2020.

6.8 serious injuries occurred for every 100 Amazon warehouse workers in 2021, compared to 3.3 for every 100 people in other warehouses, based on Amazon’s injury reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Perhaps in an effort to quell concerns over workplace safety, Amazon wrote in a January report that its warehouses are becoming safer, citing a decrease in the number of injuries that result in missed work. But while “serious injuries” have decreased in recent years, overall injuries have continued to rise.

Amazon’s Rebuttal

Amazon said there’s “no merit” to the SOC’s complaint. “

In a recent interview, the multinational e-commerce responded, saying:

Amazon relies on the most recent, credible, independently verified safety data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest published data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics covers 2020, and they are expected to publish their 2021 data in November once they have completed their analysis.”

The Strategic Organizing Center hopes its efforts will lead to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission conducting a thorough investigation into Amazon’s conduct.