Labor critics are pointing a recent string of unrelated Amazon employee deaths as further proof of the company’s exploitative and dangerous working conditions within its many warehouse centers across the country. Between July 13 and August 4, four workers died while on the clock at separate Amazon locations—three in New Jersey facilities, with a fourth at a hub in Pennsylvania. The causes of death reportedly stem from cardiac arrest that occurred on Prime Day, a forklift crash, and a head injury sustained from falling off a ladder, while the fourth fatality remains under investigation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has six months to release the results of its examinations of all four deaths.
As CNET and elsewhere report, the latest tragedies will likely only increase Amazon’s intensifying scrutiny and criticism from policymakers, advocacy groups, and the company’s own employees regarding staggering productivity quotas and brutal working conditions. Earlier in August, warehouse staff leaked photos of thermometer temperatures within storage containers reaching as high as 145-degrees Fahrenheit, while a study released earlier this year revealed Amazon workers’ onsite injury rates may be as much as double the industry average.
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