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Amazon warehouse injury numbers highlight pressure on workers
Amazon's relentless drive for efficiency and to meet its self-imposed tight delivery deadlines has reportedly played a role in serious injuries among warehouse workers. A joint investigation by Reveal and The Atlantic, along with a separate report from Gizmodo, highlighted the extent of the injury epidemic based on Amazon's internal incident reports. They also underscore the pressure employees are facing to hit their targets.
Amazon is building dedicated warehouses for hazardous goods
Amazon is building dedicated warehouses to store hazardous goods, with the first one it constructed from scratch set to open this summer. It follows an incident at the tail end of last year, in which an exploding can of bear repellent led to 24 workers being hospitalized.
Amazon workers held strikes across Europe on Black Friday
Amazon workers across Europe took part in walkouts on Black Friday to protest what they say are unfair work conditions. Following similar demonstrations on Prime Day in July, employees in Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK went on strike over pay and safety. However, Amazon told the Guardian that the walkouts didn't hamper its delivery efforts across the continent.
Amazon warehouse collapse in Baltimore leaves two dead
Amazon is grappling with tragedy at one of its warehouses this weekend. A 50-foot wall at the company's southeast Baltimore fulfillment center collapsed on the night of November 2nd in the midst of a large storm, killing two people. They worked for an external company, an Amazon official told the Baltimore Sun. The online retailer's senior operations VP, Dave Clark, was thankful for emergency response teams and said the company's "thoughts and prayers" went out to those affected.
Amazon is reportedly building ‘picker’ robots for fulfillment centers
In order to fulfil its many orders in a timely fashion, Amazon employs a large number of people, and a key part to the company's order fulfillment process are pickers. These employees are the ones that pick items from fulfillment center shelves, collect them into bins and send them to packers that put them all together into boxes to be mailed out. So far, this job has been carried out by humans, but The Information reports that the company is working on robots that can do the task on their own.
Amazon promises 7,000 new jobs ahead of Obama visit
Amazon has just announced that it will add 5,000 jobs at 17 fulfillment centers across the US, along with 2,000 customer service positions. The news comes just ahead of a visit tomorrow by President Obama to the retail giant's Chattanooga, Tennessee fulfillment center, where he's set to outline new job-creation policies. Amazon says such jobs typically pay 30 percent more than in retail stores, and all are full-time and include retirement, health care and stock benefits. The company has tripled its workforce over the past three years, and currently employs over 20,000 employees in its US warehouses, and 97,000 worldwide -- neck and neck with Microsoft. Such expansion resulted in a small loss $7 million last quarter, despite growing sales, but Amazon evidently plans to carry on regardless.
