Even as Jeff Bezos has pledged to make Amazon “Earth’s Safest Place to Work,” the company’s warehouses continue to lead the industry in rates of injuries on the job, according to a new disturbing analysis released April 12th by the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC).

The report found that despite Amazon's pledge to halve injury rates within five years, injury rates at its facilities—already outrageously high—increased by a staggering 20 percent from 2020 to 2021.

Workers at Amazon facilities suffered nearly 40,000 injuries in 2021, according to SOC’s analysis. While Amazon employed 33% of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2021, the company was responsible for 49% of all injuries in the warehouse industry last year.

The report, "The Injury Machine: How Amazon’s Production System Hurts Workers" also found that:

• Amazon’s high-pressure operations keep hurting workers in unprecedented numbers, and the situation is getting worse. The data shows that in 2021 the vast majority (89%) of a total 38,334 recordable injuries—defined as those requiring a job change or medical treatment beyond first aid—at Amazon facilities were serious injuries where workers were hurt so badly that they were either unable to perform their regular job functions or forced to miss work entirely.
• Amazon’s operations continue to be dramatically more dangerous for workers than the rest of the warehouse industry. According to the analysis, while Amazon employed 33 percent of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2021, the company was responsible for a staggering 49 percent of all injuries in the industry last year.
• Amazon’s rate of serious injuries at its warehouses remains substantially higher than the rate at non-Amazon warehouse employers. The report finds Amazon warehouse workers were seriously injured at twice the rate of other warehouse employers at 6.8 per 100 workers, as compared to 3.3 per 100 for all other employers in the warehouse industry.

Amazon’s abysmal health and safety record is not an accident. Rather, it is the predictable outcome of a company that prioritizes growth and profits over the health and safety of its employees. Unfortunately, this alarming rate of serious injuries will likely continue unless Amazon is forced to take meaningful action to make its workplaces safer.

Join our campaign to hold Amazon accountable for putting profits over worker health and safety. Sign the petition to demand the company take action to #ProtectAmazonWorkers!