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Senator Markey announces “Warehouse Worker Protection Act” with labor champions

Washington (May 2, 2024) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, along with Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.), introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, legislation that 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. 

Large companies seek to maximize profits by instituting exacting quota systems that push workers to their physical limits, resulting in high injury rates that can, in some cases, be permanently disabling and a loss of dignity at work. A new report released today by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and other worker groups demonstrates that one in fifteen Amazon workers sustain injuries, with Amazon representing 79 percent of large warehouse employment but 86 percent of all injuries. Recent data shows also that more than half of workers (54% of Amazon and 57% of Walmart) reported that their production rate makes it hard for them to use the bathroom at least some of the time. In addition, the NELP report indicates that these quotas are sometimes applied without employer disclosure, despite employees being held accountable to those standards.

“The Warehouse Worker Protection Act is about dignity, safety, and respect for the workers that make companies run,” said Senator Markey. “When corporations repeatedly use and abuse warehouse workers, they show us that their number one obligation is to their profits. This bill would guarantee that we have basic standards in place to protect warehouse workers from the worst of corporate greed and move us one step further towards true worker justice.” 

“I approach this issue with the core belief that all companies should follow the law and treat their workers fairly,” said Senator Smith. “Many workers in large warehouses that use aggressive quota systems are pushed to the brink every day and sometimes can’t even take a break to go to the bathroom. This bill will protect these workers and increase transparency from warehouses that use quotas so that they can’t take advantage of their workers.”

“When giant corporations use intrusive surveillance technology to track warehouse productivity, workers usually end up paying the price,” said Senator Casey. “Workers are skipping breaks to meet quotas set by algorithms, putting their own safety and the safety of their colleagues at risk. I have long fought against surveillance and AI technology to manage workers, and this bill is another step to ensure workers have a voice in the workplace to stand up for their own health and safety.”

The legislation would prohibit dangerous quotas, including those that rely on constant intrusive surveillance, interfere with workers’ ability to use the bathroom and take guaranteed breaks, violate health and safety laws, or prevent workers from exercising their right to organize. The legislation also creates new transparency requirements for quota systems and directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create an ergonomic management standard for warehouse workers. 

A copy of the legislation can be found HERE.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is an original cosponsor of the bill. 

A companion bill will be introduced in the House by Reps. Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Haley Stevens (MI-11), Chris Smith (NJ-04), and Mike Lawler (NY-17). 

“The increasingly dangerous working conditions at warehouses across the country that result from these quota systems are wholly unacceptable,” Rep. Norcross said. “In 2022, three New Jersey warehouse workers tragically died on the job within just weeks of each other, bringing attention to working conditions and injury rates in warehouses. Businesses can keep workers safe and earn a profit - but that’s only possible with more transparency and more accountability to bring warehouse safety standards up to date. As a former electrician, I know firsthand what it is like to lose a worker on the job, which is why I’m proud be working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to introduce the Warehouse Worker Protection Act and ensure everyone goes home from work the same way they went to work: safe and unharmed.”

The Warehouse Worker Protection Act 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.

“Amazon and other abusive warehouse employers are squeezing their workers for every penny of profit, leaving behind tired and broken bodies,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien. “These corporate criminals are destroying good jobs in an industry that once supported a strong middle class. But one thing stands in their way—that’s the Teamsters Union, along with lawmakers who understand what’s at stake. It’s time to pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act and put workers’ safety over corporate profits.”

“Last March, I was injured at Amazon. Because of the exhausting pace and the physical work and my coworkers and I do, I tripped and fell flat on my face over a misplaced pallet. Disoriented, with a busted lip and a throbbing knee I could barely stand on, I went to AmCare, the company’s medical clinic. They refused to send me to a doctor when I asked, sending me back to my job. My own doctor later confirmed I’d torn my meniscus,” said Wendy Taylor, an Amazon warehouse worker and member of the STL8 organizing committee. “Amazon workers provide the world with same-day shipping, but as workers we can’t even get same-day quality healthcare from the company when we’re seriously injured on the job. Congress must pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act or else thousands more workers will face unnecessary injuries, disability, and death from a company with more than enough resources to prevent them.”

“We applaud members of Congress for standing with workers and addressing Amazon’s inexcusable safety crisis. The wealthiest corporations in the world should not be allowed to profit from pushing workers to the point of injury and leaving their families and the public to pick up the pieces. For too long, we have enabled Amazon to hollow out local economies, pollute communities, use its monopoly power to rig the rules, exploit workers, and not pay its fair share. Together we have the power to chart a different course and build an economy that works for everyone,” said Ryan Gerety, Director of the Amazon-focused Athena Coalition.

“Amazon is responsible for the lion’s share of serious injuries in the warehousing industry and the company’s over-accelerated pace of work—enforced through a draconian electronic monitoring and disciplinary system—is at the root of the problem,” said Rebecca Dixon, President and CEO, National Employment Law Project. “We applaud the co-sponsors of the Warehouse Worker Protection Act for bringing attention to Amazon’s continued failure to change its practices and end preventable worker injuries in its warehouses.”

“We cannot keep allowing employers to sacrifice their warehouse workers’ health and safety in the name of profit. Corporations’ obsessions with speed comes at an intolerable cost to workers, particularly women and people of color, who face harrowing working environments and punitive surveillance systems every day,” said Patricia Stottlemyer, Labor Rights Policy Lead at Oxfam America. “This isn’t accidental; these inhumane conditions are embedded in the business models of retail giants like Amazon and Walmart, who make obscene profits on the backs of their warehouse workers through technology-enabled monitoring, pace pressures, and countless other dangerous policies. We need the federal government to implement real protections for warehouse workers, and that’s why Oxfam is thrilled to support the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. Workers deserve to be safe and supported on the job.”

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