A labor activist has sued the Department of Labor (DOL) to force the release of records related to the deaths of three workers at Amazon workplaces in New Jersey in 2022.
The lawsuit states that the DOL's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which Amazon says has opened investigations into all three deaths, did not respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents related to the deaths of Rafael Mota Frias , Rodger Boland, and Eric Vadinsky.
“We have questions about Amazon’s working conditions and conduct that we hope to answer through access to these investigations,” says the lawsuit filed by Daniel Schlademan. The lawsuit says obtaining the OSHA documents “is critical to informing New Jersey lawmakers and preventing further deaths of Amazon workers.”
Schlademan is an organizer for the Online to Offline Strategy Group, an organization that supports Warehouse Life and advocates for better working conditions. Warehouse Life's current campaign, #ExposeAmazon, focuses on Amazon's injury rate.
New Jersey lawmakers are currently considering a thermal standards bill that the lawsuit claims could have protected workers like the three who died in 2022 if enacted three years ago.
OSHA is investigating deaths of Amazon workers in New Jersey
On August 14, 2024, Schlademan filed a FOIA request requesting records of three OSHA investigations into Amazon's conduct at warehouses in Carteret and Monroe, New Jersey, including inspector's investigative notes; recordings or photos; Notes from interviews and any reports summarizing each investigation.
He says he hasn't received a response from OSHA.
In Mota Frias' case, Amazon said its own investigation attributed the death to a personal illness. In January 2023, OSHA determined the cause of death was non-work-related cardiac arrest. Mota Frias died on July 13, 2022 in an Amazon warehouse in Carteret.
According to Amazon, OSHA investigated all three deaths and found no fault on Amazon's part. OSHA has not released any findings on Boland or Vadinsky.
“These were tragic incidents and it is truly disappointing that some people are working to turn them into something they were not,” Amazon spokeswoman Maureen Lynch Vogel said in a statement. “As is typical in such situations, OSHA conducted thorough investigations and closed all three cases without any allegations or allegations of wrongdoing by Amazon, and there is no evidence that heat played a role in any of these situations has.”
Amazon also says it has taken its own measures to combat heat conditions in the workplace.
“We know that legislators care about the safety of the community members they represent. The safety of our employees is also our top priority. That’s why we already have a strong, industry-leading thermal management program in place and have seen the positive impact of these efforts on safety,” said Vogel. For example, she said the company's warehouses are air-conditioned and all Amazon-branded vehicles have air conditioning that she said is “above industry standards.”
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