Amazon's Impact on MN Warehouse Workers: Injuries, Inequality, Unsafe Conditions, Study notes of Nursing

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Injuries, Dead-End Jobs, and

Racial Inequity in Amazon’s

Minnesota Operations

A Case Study on the Human Costs

of Amazon’s Growth

Executive Summary

Amazon has not lived up to its promise of providing quality jobs to workers in the United States.^1 An analysis of the corporate giant’s operations in Minnesota illustrates how it fails to provide a safe workplace, stable employment, and adequate compensation to its workers, who are disproportionately Black and include many East African immigrants. As Amazon expands its footprint throughout the country and in Minnesota—with new facilities opening in 2021 around the state—an analysis of Amazon’s current warehouses in Minnesota reveals a range of grave concerns for workers, communities, and the public.^2 The authors of this report examined data from the U.S. Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for Amazon warehouses in Minnesota, with a particular focus on the two longest-standing Amazon facilities in the state, located in the Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee in Scott County. Key findings include the following:

 Extreme rates of injury. Amazon warehouse workers in Minnesota are more than twice as likely to be injured at work as other Minnesota warehouse workers. According to Amazon’s own records from 2018 to 2020, the rate of injuries at its Minnesota warehouse facilities is 11.1 cases annually per 100 full-time-equivalent workers. This is the equivalent of one injury for every nine workers each year—more than double the rate at non-Amazon Minnesota warehouses (5.2) and more than four times the average rate for all private industries in Minnesota (2.7) during the same period. The warehousing industry average (including Amazon) in Minnesota during that period was 7.0 cases annually per 100 full-time- equivalent workers.^3 In particular, Amazon’s flagship warehouse in Minnesota, the Shakopee fulfillment center, has consistently reported extremely high rates of injury. In 2020, no industry in Minnesota had a higher average injury rate than the Shakopee Amazon fulfillment center, as seen below in Figure 3.^4

REPORT | DECEMBER 2021

thrive. To start, the State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Legislature, Minnesota OSHA, and other appropriate public agencies must take the following steps:

 Convene public hearings on Amazon’s presence in Minnesota;

 Launch a wall-to-wall Minnesota OSHA investigation of health and safety hazards in Amazon facilities;

 Mandate rest breaks and reasonable, transparent work-pace standards in the warehouse industry;

 Ban harmful and opaque surveillance and disciplinary policies such as “Time Off Task”; and

 Investigate and address occupational segregation and racial inequity at Amazon’s Minnesota operations.

By adopting these recommendations, Minnesota lawmakers and regulators can begin to mitigate the harm caused by Amazon and ensure that the company lives up to its promise to provide high- quality jobs and public benefit to the residents of the state.

Table of Contents

• NELP | INJURIES, DEAD-END JOBS, AND RACIAL INEQUITY IN AMAZON’S MINNESOTA OPERATIONS | OCTOBER
• Introduction: Racial Injustice in Minnesota and at Amazon .........................................
• Racial Wage Gap and Occupational Segregation..........................................................
• Extreme Injury Rates and a Climate of Fear .................................................................
• measure Amazon warehouse injury rates in Minnesota are astronomically high by every
• with proper safeguards Amazon management practices cause high rates of injuries that would be preventable
• Inadequate on-site medical care and documentation
• Extreme temperatures and noise levels create hazards
• injuries and preventing workers from reporting health and safety concerns “Time off task”: Disciplinary policies and surveillance heighten workers’ fear, causing
• Triple-Digit Turnover Rates.......................................................................................
• Driving Warehouse Industry Wages Down in Minnesota ...........................................
• Exploiting Seasonal and Nonstandard Workers .........................................................
• Many Workers Infected with COVID-19 and Lacking Sick Leave .................................
• Other Costs to the Public and the State of Minnesota ...............................................
• Conclusion and Recommendations ...........................................................................
• Methodological Note ...............................................................................................
• Acknowledgements..................................................................................................
• Appendix 1: OSHA 300 Log from Shakopee Fulfillment Center ...................................
• Appendix 2: Warehouse Workers in Scott County, Minnesota, by Race/Ethnicity.......
• Shakopee................................................................................................................. Appendix 3: Recent Job Posting on Indeed.com for Amazon Warehouse Worker in
• Endnotes .................................................................................................................

The proportion of Black workers at Amazon’s Minnesota facilities is also higher than at the company nationally. According to recent reports that Amazon is required to provide to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, about 32 percent of Amazon’s employees in the “laborers” category nationally are Black.^21

As this report shows, Amazon has failed to create the safe, stable, equal-pay jobs for which Black communities in Minnesota have long fought.^22 George Floyd’s tragic murder exposed the stark racial and economic inequality in Minnesota and the Twin Cities.^23 The metro area has one of the largest racial income gaps in the nation: The median annual income for Black families is less than half that of white families.^24 The Twin Cities–area Black poverty rate is significantly higher than the national Black poverty rate, while the white poverty rate is significantly lower than the national one.^25 Studies have documented rampant employment discrimination in Minnesota.^26

Instead of providing quality, long-term jobs for Black Minnesotans, Amazon has exploited existing labor market inequities to fuel its growth at the expense of the wellbeing of its workers and their families. Minnesota’s experience with Amazon is another chapter in a long history in which elected officials stewarding Minnesota’s economy have continually failed Black workers and families.^27

Minnesota policymakers and regulators must urgently address the role that Amazon plays in perpetuating existing racial inequities in the state. More broadly, they must confront the realities of Amazon’s growth in and impacts on Minnesota, redress the harms that Amazon workers have already suffered, prevent future harms, and reaffirm the basic premise that democracy, equity, and shared prosperity remain the best assurance of a vibrant, healthy, and fair society.

Racial Wage Gap and Occupational Segregation

Black workers at Shakopee Amazon warehouses take home considerably less than white workers, as county-level earnings data reveal. In 2018, monthly earnings for Black workers at the warehouses averaged $2,108, just 63 percent of what white workers at the warehouses made on average: $3,339.25.^28

Figure 2. Black workers in Scott County warehouses (almost all Amazon) make just 63 percent of what white workers make

Source: US Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2018^29

$3, $2, $2,

$

$

$1,

$1,

$2,

$2,

$3,

$3,

$4,

White Latinx Black (non-Latinx)

While Amazon does not disclose occupational breakdowns of the workforce, the large gap in earnings suggests a high degree of occupational segregation at the Shakopee fulfillment center, with Black workers segregated into the lowest-paid jobs and jobs that are part-time or seasonal. Amazon also does not disclose statistics on the number of hours worked by those it employs, but recent Amazon job ads on Indeed.com for warehouse workers in Shakopee state that employees there can expect to work 16 to 24 hours a week.^30

Black Amazon warehouse workers in Shakopee make just over $2,000 a month, on average, which is not sufficient to cover basic expenses in the Twin Cities without another source of income.^31 With such low earnings, many may not even be able to meet their housing costs. About three in four white families in the Twin Cities own homes, but as a result of a long history of housing discrimination, only about one in four Black families do.^32 The lack of affordable housing close to the Shakopee facilities means long commutes for workers. In 2015, the City of Shakopee developed just 26 affordable homes.^33 Fifty-eight percent of Black renter households in the Twin Cities are housing cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of household income on housing.^34

Minnesota’s experience

with Amazon is another

chapter in a long history

in which elected officials

stewarding Minnesota’s

economy have

continually failed Black

workers and families.

This rate of injury per 100 full-time-equivalent workers is more than twice as high as the rate at non-Amazon Minnesota warehouses (5.2) and 59 percent higher than the Minnesota warehouse industry average rate of 7.0 (including Amazon). It is more than four times the average rate for all Minnesota industries of 2.7 injuries per 100 full-time equivalent workers annually.^36

In particular, Amazon’s flagship facility in Minnesota, the Shakopee fulfillment center, has chart-topping rates of injury. (See Appendix 1 for an image of a recent OSHA 300 log detailing Amazon’s self-reported workplace injuries at the Shakopee facilities.) In 2020, no industry in Minnesota had a higher rate of total injury than the rate reported at the Shakopee Amazon fulfillment center, as seen above in Figure 3.^37

The injury rate at the Shakopee facility has also historically been higher than the nationwide average injury rate at Amazon warehouses for which data are available. 38

In 2020, no industry in

Minnesota had a higher

rate of total injury than

the rate reported at the

Shakopee Amazon

fulfillment center.

Amazon management practices cause high rates of injuries that would be preventable with proper safeguards

Amazon workers experience high rates and large numbers of work-related injuries that are preventable. The majority of these injuries are musculoskeletal injuries that are caused by the highly repetitive forceful motions that workers are required to make as they lift, carry, pull, push, twist, and bend to get the products to consumers.^39

Further, the types of musculoskeletal injuries that workers suffer are ones that can stay with them for the rest of their lives, leading to chronic pain and an elevated risk of reinjury and long- term disability. The prospect of suffering a lifelong injury is particularly troubling for the younger workers who make up the majority of Amazon’s Shakopee warehouse workforce. According to U.S. Census data, 20 percent of Scott County warehouse workers are younger than 25 years old, and 53 percent of warehouse workers are younger than 35 years old.^40

After a recent investigation, Washington State OSHA recently cited an Amazon warehouse for failing to provide a safe workplace and violating the workplace safety law, stating that:

“Employees are expected to maintain a very high pace of work. Information collected documented that pressure is put on workers to maintain that pace without adequate recovery time to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders."^41

As Washington State OSHA notes, the high rates of injuries can be traced to the way that Amazon manages its workforce. The pace of work at Amazon fulfillment centers is grueling. Production goals for workers are constantly changing with new algorithms being introduced to speed up rates and force workers to work faster.^42 This rapid pace of work and high production quotas contribute to the high rates of work-related injuries at Amazon facilities. Some examples of quotas for workers in Amazon’s Shakopee facilities include 260 items per hour for stowers (who shelve incoming items), 450 items per hour for pickers (who grab items that are ordered) and 230 items per hour for packers (who pack boxes to ship). Workers who do not meet their quotas face discipline or termination.

but AmCare’s onsite health care staff failed to offer help, to call an ambulance, or to notify her family.^45

Around the country, some Amazon workers have also reported that AmCare plays a role in preventing workers from seeking proper medical care and documentation in order to thwart potential workers’ compensation claims when injuries have required significant time off work or prevented them from returning to work.^46

Given accounts from Shakopee workers about inadequate care and problems reported in other parts of the country—including an OSHA inspection at an Amazon facility in New Jersey that revealed that AmCare employees were providing medical care beyond the first-aid treatment that they were qualified to offer—Minnesota OSHA should thoroughly investigate AmCare staffing and practices at Minnesota Amazon facilities to ensure that Amazon is not offering medical treatment from unqualified personnel or thwarting workers’ compensation claims.^47

Extreme temperatures and noise levels create hazards

In addition to dangerous work-pace requirements, workers have reported lack of temperature control in facilities. As one worker said, “During summertime, we don’t get enough AC, in the winter we don’t get enough heat.”^48 Another current Shakopee worker said, “It’s too hot. They put in fans that don’t help. It’s always too hot.” Workers have reported health emergencies resulting from extreme heat.^49

Workers have also reported extreme levels of noise. The high noise level is even acknowledged and referenced in postings for job openings at the Shakopee fulfillment center.^50 One current Shakopee worker described Amazon’s inadequate measures to protect workers from noise, saying:

“It’s very very noisy. They used to have earplugs, but I don’t know where they went. You need to walk miles to find them. They used to have them next to the bathroom but I haven’t seen them for a long time.”

“Time off task”: Disciplinary policies and surveillance heighten workers’ fear, causing injuries and preventing workers from reporting health and safety concerns

In addition to production quotas, other major drivers of high injury rates are Amazon’s disciplinary and surveillance practices, which foster a harmful climate of fear and uncertainty for workers. In May of 2021, Washington State cited and fined Amazon for occupational health hazards directly linked to its monitoring and disciplinary practices, stating, “[t]here is a direct connection between Amazon’s employee monitoring and discipline system and workplace musculoskeletal disorders.”^51

One of the most harmful disciplinary policies is a practice that Amazon refers to as “Time Off Task” in which workers are tracked and penalized for every second they are not actively doing assigned tasks—for example, using the bathroom or washing their hands.

A current Amazon Shakopee worker, whom we will refer to as J., has a job that includes stowing items. He says:

“You gotta stow all day long. When you stop, your “Time Off Task” starts. If you’re dealing with a heavy product and are trying to adjust things, your rate goes off. You gotta have a lot of energy.”

J. says his hands go numb at the end of the day due to strain. He also describes the impact of the lack of breaks combined with the disciplinary policy.

“Bathrooms are so far away. You may need to walk a quarter mile to get to a bathroom. And you get an eight-minute break to go to bathroom, so you’re rushed. Maybe you can do it in eight minutes if you don’t wash your hands. If you have a stomach upset or anything there’s not enough time. If you want to take longer, you need to tell manager, but it’s difficult or impossible to find a manager.”

J. has worked at Amazon in Minnesota since 2017. He says, “If you don’t make the rate, they write you up. I got written up six times. For low productivity. Time off task.”

Jennifer Bates, who works at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, describes in vivid detail how this practice affects workers’ day-to-day experience.

“It’s not just physically. It’s a mental strain on—I’m speaking for myself, but mentally, you have to think about even if I can go to the bathroom...You have to mentally think, I’m tired. Do I take the chance to walk way up there to get me something to eat?”

Her description shows how Amazon’s hostile and intensive electronic monitoring practices and disciplinary policies negatively impact both the physical and mental health of workers. Moreover, Bates says that Amazon does not give workers clear guidelines on how the policy is enforced.

Changes in turnover rate can be related to various factors, including business cycle fluctuations. However, the particularly high rate for this group of workers as compared to the rate for similar workers suggests that Amazon’s presence has had a unique impact.

Not only are the turnover rates in Shakopee high compared to other warehouses in Minnesota and elsewhere around the country, they are also exceedingly high compared to other Amazon facilities. A recent New York Times analysis of county- level census data revealed abnormally high turnover rates at Amazon’s facilities around the country: At roughly 150 percent a year, it was almost double that of the retail and logistics industries.^56 The fact that turnover rates at the Shakopee facilities exceed those documented at Amazon facilities elsewhere around the country—alongside the astronomically high injury rates in Shakopee—underscores the unsustainability of Amazon jobs for Minnesota workers, and the adverse consequences for workers’ families and communities. One of the driving factors of high turnover at these facilities is the fact that Amazon’s inhumane work pace doing repetitive tasks requires a level of physical exertion and strain that takes a high toll on workers’ physical health over time— which is why the company needs to constantly replenish its workforce. As J. says, “I personally know people with knee, back, shoulder, hand injuries. People have left the job because of injuries. They can’t go on.”

What emerges is a troubling picture of Amazon’s business model—one in which the company views its workers as disposable and designs its operations with no intention of creating jobs that people can stay in for the long-term. Instead of cultivating workers to stay with the company for many years, Amazon relies on a high-churn model that uses and discards workers without regard for the cost to their health or potential disruptions to their lives, their families, and their communities.

Table 1. Scott County's warehouse turnover rates exceed those of all other

Minnesota counties

County Average Annual Employment Total Separations Turnover Scott (mostly Amazon) 4,435 7,560 170.40% Hennepin 2,840 1,384 48.74% Anoka 1,228 1,432 116.61% Dakota 774 594 76.72% Winona 698 166 23.77% Ramsey 400 156 38.98% Stearns 258 96 37.25% Freeborn 116 36 31.03% Washington 97 84 86.60% Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2018. Note: This list includes the Minnesota counties in which warehouse employment averaged at least 95 employees annually.

Not only are the

turnover rates in

Shakopee high

compared to other

warehouses in

Minnesota and

elsewhere around

the country, they are

also exceedingly high

compared to other

Amazon facilities.

Driving Warehouse Industry Wages Down in Minnesota

Amazon claims high rates of pay for its warehouse workers.^57 However, in reality, Amazon’s pay rates are below those of most warehouses in Minnesota, and Amazon’s low wages have measurably dragged average wage rates down for the entire warehouse industry in the state. The most recent Census data available show that Scott County warehouse workers (a large majority of whom are Amazon workers in Shakopee) earned on average $3,757 per month in 2018, compared to the statewide average for warehouse workers (including Amazon) of $3, per month. Compare this to the $4,362 (the equivalent of $4,621 in 2018 dollars) in monthly earnings for Minnesota warehouse workers on average in 2015, the year Amazon began operations in Shakopee—a 9 percent decline in wages. After adjusting for inflation, the effect is even more dramatic, representing a 14 percent decline in real wages and purchasing power in just three years.^58

Amazon’s outsized presence and large-scale hiring may provide a modest bump to wages in low- wage industries in a local labor market area as it drives up competition for workers.^59 However, Amazon’s impact on local warehouse wages in particular—which have historically tended to be higher than the average wage—has been shown to be negative, not only in Minnesota but across the country. An analysis by The Economist recently found that in the two and a half years before the opening of a new Amazon warehouse facility, local warehouse wages increase by an average of 8 percent. In the two and half years after Amazon’s arrival, those wages fall by 3 percent. It also found that in places where Amazon operates, warehouse workers earn about 10 percent less than similar workers employed elsewhere.^60

Figure 5. Real monthly earnings at Minnesota warehouses have declined 14 percent since Amazon began operations in Shakopee

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce indicators

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$4,

$4,

$4,

$4,

$4,

2015 2016 2017 2018

Average monthly earnings at Minnesota warehouses Inflation-adjusted (2018$)

Amazon opened their 1st and 2nd warehouses in Shakopee in 2015 and 2016

Within Amazon warehouses, seasonal and permanent workers work alongside each other, often completing the same tasks, in many cases differentiated only by the color of the badges they carry. Seasonal “white badge” workers suffer a wage and benefit penalty relative to their permanent “blue badge” counterparts.^63 Indeed, Amazon’s overuse of “seasonal” hiring has created a two-tiered workforce within its warehouses. According to reports from a facility in Shakopee, seasonal workers receive fewer health benefits, less paid time off, and reduced access to promotions than do permanent workers.^64 And seasonal workers have reported being locked into temporary status for upwards of 10 months—this practice is known as “perma-temping”^65 — and have demanded their conversion to permanent employee status.^66

As is the case across the United States, the trucking and last-mile delivery networks connected to the Shakopee fulfillment center are characterized by a range of work arrangements that erode labor standards for workers.

Last-mile delivery drivers working for the Amazon Flex digital labor platform are labelled “independent contractors” by Amazon, although they are not truly running a separate business, free from control by the corporation.^67 Hourly wage rates are a third to half of what unionized United Parcel Service and U.S. Postal Service workers earn.^68 Amazon Flex drivers across the United States have sued Amazon for independent contractor misclassification and a host of labor violations including wage theft.^69

Under Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program, the company subcontracts last-mile delivery work to small providers that deploy company-branded vans and (Amazon says solely) employ delivery drivers.^70 Amazon exerts a significant amount of control over the operations of its DSPs, tracking and surveilling drivers, and imposing demanding productivity standards that can lead to unsafe driving practices and accidents, from which the company attempts to indemnify itself.^71 According to a former manager for Amazon Logistics, “The DSP contract- labor model is absolutely to mitigate risk and not take on the cost and obligation to actually employ people.”^72

Amazon, through its membership in the TechNet lobby group,^73 is a member of the Coalition for Workforce Innovation,^74 where it joins other Big Tech companies (via TechNet), members of the Retail Industry Leaders Association like Walmart,^75 digital labor platforms like Uber, and many more corporate giants in lobbying to transform more U.S. workers into non-employees, stripping them of federal labor protections.^76

Many Workers Infected with COVID-19 and Lacking Sick Leave

Amazon workers have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, often working mandatory overtime to provide essential distribution and delivery services in Minnesota as the company has seen a surge in business during the pandemic. Infection rates among workers at Amazon facilities were far higher than in the surrounding community. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, during a period of 70 days in the spring of 2020, about 1 in 12 Shakopee Amazon workers contracted the virus.^77 An internal Amazon memo showed that infections were nearly five times the rate of surrounding counties.^78

Many Amazon workers are trapped between poverty and the risk of contracting COVID: “We’re all poor,” explained one Shakopee facility worker when describing why he and colleagues took overtime shifts during the coronavirus pandemic.^79

When Shakopee workers raised concerns about the lack of protection against the spread of COVID-19 at the facilities, the company responded with retaliatory actions. For example, Bashir Mohamed had spent close to three years working nights at an Amazon warehouse in Shakopee when the pandemic struck. As reports of the spread of COVID-19 in the facility in March 2020 became more alarming, Mohamed grew concerned about his own and his fellow warehouse workers’ safety. Pre-pandemic, Mohamed had pushed for improved conditions at the warehouse. He came together with other workers to organize job actions, including walkouts and slowdowns. Now he began to warn his coworkers about the dangers of the virus, and to advocate for Amazon to implement better cleaning practices to mitigate the risk of contagion. He also expressed concern about the impossibility of maintaining social distancing at work. In April 2020, Amazon fired Mohamed.^80

Amazon workers who contracted COVID found that the company did not provide adequate leave. One current worker, J., describes the lack of sick time: “I’ve worked in so many companies. When you don’t feel good, you take sick time. [Amazon] make[s] it ‘personal time.’ You have 40 hours the whole year for personal time.”^81

Tyler Hamilton, another Amazon worker who believes he contracted COVID-19 while working at the Shakopee fulfillment center in 2020, described the devasting impact of inadequate paid leave:

“I was out of work for a month, the majority of that being unpaid. It’s tiring having to work hard to pay your bills—10-hour shifts, 12-hour shifts—only to be hit with something like getting sick and falling behind because we don’t have paid family medical leave or paid sick leave like we should.”^82

During a period of 70

days in the spring of

2020, about 1 in 12

Shakopee Amazon

workers contracted

the virus.