---
title: "Report: Amazon Warehouses Are “Permanently Maiming” Workers"
description: "A new investigation reveals just how dangerous Amazon warehouses are for workers. Injuries are dangerously high, and people's jobs are always on the line."
date: "2019-11-26"
modified: "2019-11-26"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-warehouses-serious-injuries-workers"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "Amazon"
  - "injuries"
  - "the digest"
  - "warehouses"
---

# Report: Amazon Warehouses Are “Permanently Maiming” Workers

![A new investigation reveals just how dangerous Amazon warehouses are for workers. Injuries are dangerously high, and people's jobs are always on the line.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/amazon-warehouses-serious-injuries.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Álvaro Ibáñez\</em\>*

## Occupational Hazards

Amazon's warehouses, where workers have to pack shipments [at a blistering pace](<https://futurism.com/amazon-ai-fire-workers>), are home to a disturbing number of serious worker injuries and safety hazards.

In 2018, Amazon more than doubled the national warehousing industry average for serious worker injuries. A new [investigation by *The Atlantic* and *Reveal*](<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/>) shows how the company prioritizes efficiency at the expense of its employees' health — and sometimes lives — while downplaying the problem and blaming workers for getting hurt.

## Upcoming Bloodbath

The investigation reveals how Amazon workers are made to [work in dangerous conditions](<https://futurism.com/deaths-amazon-list-most-dangerous-employers>) with insufficient time to rest or walk to the bathroom without getting fired. Several workers suffered serious injuries, for instance, because they didn't even have enough time to properly lift heavy boxes.

With Black Friday approaching, workers who spoke to *Reveal* say they expect a huge spike in injuries as the company brings on a larger workforce that's unaccustomed to the workflow. Meanwhile, Amazon said its high injury numbers come from a tendency to overreport injuries and prioritize safety, but declined to provide evidence to support its framing.

"For Amazon," an injured worker told *Reveal*, "all they care about is getting the job done and getting it out fast and not realizing how it's affecting us and our own bodies."

## Under The Rug

*Reveal*'s investigation found that one man died because Amazon never trained him to safely repair a forklift, but instructed him to try anyway. He was crushed to death, and the Indiana government — vying to be selected as the location for Amazon's next headquarters — helped the megacorporation get off the hook for the death.

"When you order something from Amazon and you’ve worked inside Amazon, you wonder, 'Hey, is ordering my package going to be the demise of somebody?'" one former employee told *Reveal*.

**READ MORE:** [Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Permanently Maiming Employees](<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/>) \[*The Atlantic*\]

**More on safety:** *[After Deaths, Amazon Lands on List of Most Dangerous Employers](<https://futurism.com/deaths-amazon-list-most-dangerous-employers>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)