Washington (December 16, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement today after the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released a report on working conditions at Amazon following an extensive investigation.

In May 2024, Senator Markey introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act along with Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Bob Casey (D-Penn.). The legislation would protect warehouse workers by prohibiting dangerous work speed quotas that lead to high rates of worker injuries and requiring companies to disclose what quotas apply to workers. In September 2024, Senator Markey reintroduced a bipartisan Warehouse Worker Protection Act.

“The findings in this report are unsurprising,” said Senator Markey. “Amazon forces workers to break their own backs to keep up with dangerous work speed quotas—all in the name of shameless corporate greed. Instead of valuing the very workers that Amazon relies on each and every day, Amazon treats workers as disposable. Massive companies like Amazon will never regulate themselves, and workers cannot and should not be forced to rely on corporate executives’ false promises of reform. We need stronger, guaranteed protections to require safety and transparency in the industry and to reign in unchecked corporate abuse, and we can start by passing the Warehouse Worker Protection Act.”

The Warehouse Workers Protection Act is also cosponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). The legislation is endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the Athena Coalition, and Oxfam America.

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