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Amazon’s warehouse operations have long struggled with high rates of injury. A 2024 investigation led by Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions member Bernie Sanders accused the company of pushing for higher productivity at the cost of employee safety, in conclusions Amazon vehemently denied at the time.
But even in the case of a worker’s death, managers are being instructed to tell employees to look away. At least,that’s according to a startling new investigation by the Western Edge, which found that Amazon tried to keep the April 6 death of a worker at its distribution center in Troutdale, Oregon, from being publicized. The outlet is the first to report on the death one week later.
Worse yet, an employee, who was given the pseudonym Sam, told the outlet that despite seeing a “body form laying lifeless,” his supervisor told them to “please get back to work.”
A woman reportedly ran over to the individual in distress and began performing chest compressions on him. Sam, who is trained in CPR, suggested they should help her.
“I start sobbing and said, ‘I want to help, please!’ I know she’s going to get tired and need to be subbed out,” they told The Western Edge.
“It has to be management or safety team,” his supervisor replied. “Just turn around and not look. Let’s get back to work,” Sam recalled his boss telling him. According to the shaken worker, even his supervisor had tears in their eyes.
While first responders eventually showed up to the man who had collapsed, the incident shocked employees, with some calling out middle management for being too callous in their response.
The news comes just days after a man lit a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse filled to the brim with toilet paper and other highly flammable paper products on fire. Footage shows him lighting tall stacks of paper on fire while seething that “all you had to do was pay us enough to live.”
Amazon has previously fought off accusations of being responsible for a series of deaths at its distribution centers across the country, lawsuits involving the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that have overwhelmingly landed in Amazon’s favor.
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