Call for federal investigation of Amazon worker injuries, critics gather at Logan site

LOGAN TWP. – A push for a federal investigation into workplace accident rates at the 53 Amazon warehouses in New Jersey has reached into Logan, where Amazon is a big player in a large and rapidly expanding industry.

U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1, hosted a news conference Wednesday within view of the immense Amazon fulfillment center on a 70-acre property off Oldmans Creek Road. The topic was what critics allege is a disturbing injury trend at the state's largest private sector employer.

Norcross, in private life an electrician, said comparing Amazon facilities injury reports with those of other warehouse operators yields injury rates "astronomically out of whack" with each other. 

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"They’re generally all new buildings, within a few years," Norcross said later. "They have all the modern conveniences. They were designed with all the modern techniques. Yet, these are (accident) numbers from decades ago.

"Why are you 88 percent more likely to get hurt seriously at a warehouse job at Amazon than its equivalent?" Norcross said. "One out of two serious injuries, in the whole state of New Jersey, is Amazon."

Last week, Norcross was part of a congressional hearing that called on the U.S. Department of Labor to get involved. The department was asked to launch a Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into the company's operations, nationwide.

An Amazon corporate spokesman did not respond immediately to comments from the news conference. Norcross afterward said he expected to talk to a company representative later Wednesday or on Thursday.

Critics are relying on data Amazon already has given to OSHA on injury rates among its employers, a reporting that is required under federal labor law. The overall injury rate at those 53 sites represents 55 percent of all serious injuries reported at all warehouse operations in the state, according to Amazon critics. 

However, critics also believe the data is far from complete and want a rigorous parsing of all records that Amazon keeps.

Also at the news event were representatives of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a self-described independent think tank; Warehouse Workers, Make the Road New Jersey, a lobby for workers and immigrants; and the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. 

N.J. Policy Perspective and the Rutgers school crunched OSHA data to get an idea of the scope of potential problems. 

Carmen Martino, an assistant professor at the Rutgers school, said the data has allowed analysts to get a representative idea of what is happening inside the facilities. "It amounts to treating workers like equipment, rather than human beings," Martino said.

Prior to driving to Logan, news conference participants were in Bellmawr at an Amazon facility where employees staged a walk out on Wednesday morning.

"It’s worth noting that a few weeks at that same facility workers were exposed to high levels of diesel fumes when an air conditioning system malfunctioned and the generator’s exhaust was drawn into the facility," Martino said. 

"Again, the workers at Bellmawr, all Amazon workers, all workers, want to be treated like human beings and not replaceable pieces of equipment that keep things moving," Martino said. "It’s a demand that workers have had, well, going back to the late 19th Century and actually even before then."

Nicole Rodriguez, president of N.J. Policy Perspective, said data indicates that the number of reportable injuries at Amazon sites increased 50 percent from 2020 to 2021.

"Here at this location, this very one, Amazon’s fulfillment reportable injury rate increased by 70 percent during the same time period," Rodriguez said. "And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Many injuries go unreported or not investigated by OSHA. And New Jersey is not alone. Across the country, Amazon work is seemingly far more dangerous than work in comparable (facilities)." 

Rodriguez said what makes New Jersey stand out in that statistical picture is the workforce numbers. Amazon's workforce in the state rose from about 5,500 to about 49,000 over the last five years, she said.

"New Jersey is fast becoming Amazon’s staging ground to build and strengthen its presence across the country," Rodriguez said. "But, Amazon needs our public assets. Our roads. Our highways. Our ports. Ultimately, though, Amazon needs our workers.

"And those workers need enforceable standards to protect them," she said. "The best employers already provide this. But Amazon has proved over and over again that it doesn’t prioritize the very workers that brings the company success."

Rodriguez said her organization and other Amazon critics are asking for four immediate steps, beginning with the company agreeing to have workers form health and safety committees with authority to put forth recommendations.

The company also is being asked to consider, at least retroactively, "hazard pay" for people who worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

One former Amazon worker, Nayeli Sulca, spoke about becoming ill at an Elizabeth facility from exposure to a powder. Sulca spoke Spanish, with Make the Road member Sara Cullinane translating.

“The managers at Amazon didn’t ask me how I was feeling after I became sick," Sulca said. "And after my seasonal job ended, I started receiving hospital bills and ambulance bills that I had to pay. In total, I had to pay more than $1,000 in medical bills."

On the state and federal legislative fronts, Rodriguez said she would like to see regulations that would address worker productivity quotas. Those contribute to the accident rates, she said.

Critics also want to see tougher enforcement measures and penalties enacted.

In August 2021, Amazon released an economic impact report that detailed $530 billion of investments in the United States. Of that, $23 billion has been in New Jersey.

The report stated stated that, in addition to about 49,000 full-time and part-time jobs within Amazon in New Jersey, the company presence indirectly supports about 64,000 jobs.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

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