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The Home Committee on Oversight and Reform has launched an investigation into Amazon’s labor practices round extreme climate occasions, specializing in the corporate’s Illinois warehouse the place six individuals died in a twister strike final winter.
The committee is searching for paperwork and communication information from Amazon throughout the subsequent two weeks, in keeping with a letter signed by Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Cori Bush (D-MO) and despatched Thursday to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
The letter cites stories that Amazon threatened to fireside workers in the event that they left work because the twister bore down on the world and that supply dispatchers weren’t allowed to name drivers again with out Amazon’s approval, even when there was an energetic twister warning. The storm ended up hitting an Amazon warehouse, which collapsed and killed six individuals.
The committee is searching for an intensive quantity of knowledge from Amazon — the letter requests paperwork concerning the firm’s emergency preparedness necessities, the drills it carried out in Edwardsville, and logs of “all communications between managerial employees, workers, or contractors relating to employment tasks and firm protocol throughout the extreme climate occasions,” amongst different issues.
Lawmakers additionally need documentation on Amazon’s inner opinions or investigations into the occasions in Edwardsville, in addition to data on any self-discipline workers and contractors confronted in Illinois and different areas. Amazon is requested to supply the paperwork by April 14th.
The legislators additionally deliver up issues which have arisen at different Amazon warehouses — among the data requests pertain to Amazon employees being instructed to maintain working throughout wildfires in California, excessive heatwaves in Washington and Oregon, and hurricanes in 2017 and 2018.
This isn’t the primary authorities investigation into Amazon’s warehouse practices in Edwardsville. Two teams of lawmakers despatched letters demanding solutions in December, and the Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) opened its personal investigation.
Amazon didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark, however one in every of its spokespeople instructed The New York Instances: “Our focus continues to be on supporting our workers and companions, the households who misplaced family members, the encircling group, and all these affected by the tornadoes. We’ll reply to this letter in the end.”
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