ALMOST half of all recorded injuries in warehouses in the United States last year occurred at Amazon, according to a report released by a coalition of unions yesterday.

“Amazon employed one-third of all warehouse workers in the US, but is responsible for nearly one-half (49%) of all injuries in the warehouse industry,” according to the report by the Strategic Organising Centre (SOC).

US Amazon workers sustained more than 34,000 “serious injuries” on the job last year, a rate more than twice as high as that at warehouses not owned by the e-commerce giant, said the report.

The coalition said it relies on data provided by Amazon to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration – the federal agency responsible for preventing workplace injuries.

It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“After relaxing some of its discipline systems in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon re-implemented its monitoring systems and production pressures in late 2020, and its injury rates rose substantially,” said the SOC.

Hiring at Amazon has spiked during the pandemic.

In the US, the company has gone from some 700 sites in 2020 to more than 900 in 2021, and from more than 200,000 employees in 2017 to more than 560,000 in 2021, according to the report.

In June last year, Amazon changed working conditions in the country, including longer breaks for its workers who prepare, ship and deliver packages.

That decision comes after a previous damning SOC report, and an attempt to unionise at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama – which failed, but the campaign exposed what many employees described as the infernal pace of the company.

“We need a better vision for our employees’ success,” wrote Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in an annual letter to shareholders in 2020.

“We are going to be Earth’s Best Employer and Earth’s Safest Place to Work.”

But “in stark contrast to Jeff Bezos’ recent pledge… the injury rate at Amazon facilities increased by 20% between 2020 and 2021.”

In March, workers at the JFK8 warehouse in New York voted to launch the first US union at Amazon. – AFP, April 13, 2022.