Published
July 16, 2024
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), has not been shy about going after employers he doesn’t like. One of his favorites is Amazon, which most Americans know from the packages that show up at their doorsteps or in their lobbies.
In a new “interim” report, Sen. Sanders uses his position as HELP Committee Chairman to argue that Amazon fails to promote employee safety, particularly during Prime Day (note, however, that this is not a full Committee report that members from both parties have signed on to). However, there is far more to this story.
While no company involved in packaging and shipping goods can claim a perfect safety record, there is plenty of publicly available data that shows Amazon is doing pretty well. Somehow, Sen. Sanders missed this information.
According to an open letter in response to Oxfam, Amazon states that they invested over $1 billion in workplace safety projects between 2019 and 2022, above and beyond any funds spent on COVID response. The letter notes that between 2019 and 2023, according to records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the company’s recordable injury rate fell by 28%, and the lost-time incident rate fell by 75%.
This data is further bolstered by Amazon’s 2024 health and safety report, which showed even further progress. According to that document, which is based on OSHA statistics, the recordable injury rate had fallen by 30% over the past four years. The lost-time incident rate improved by 60% over that period.
Moreover, between 2020 and 2023, OSHA conducted a National Emphasis Program related to warehousing and distribution center operations. Results were reported to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for seven entities. Among them, Amazon had, by a substantial margin, the lowest rate of inspections resulting in a citation under the OSHA Act. The top rate was the United States Postal Service.
None of this is to minimize workplace injuries, which obviously can have a major impact on those who suffer one. Nor is it to say that the company shouldn’t continue to make improvements. But it certainly does suggest that Sen. Sanders is less interested in the facts or an objective analysis of the results of OSHA’s own investigations than in disparaging a company he dislikes.
Amazon provides jobs for more than a million Americans, and tens of millions enjoy the services the company provides. The fact that the HELP Committee chairman isn’t one of them doesn’t justify a partisan and misleading report.
About the authors
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
