Nuked The House Committee on Oversight and reform has launched an investigation into Amazon’s labor practices around severe weather events. Six people died in a tornado strike last winter.
The committee is seeking documents and communication records from Amazon within the next two weeks. A letter signed by reps. Carolyn B. Maloney, Alexandria ocasio-cortez and CORI Bush is sent to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
The storm ended up hitting an Amazon warehouse, which collapsed and killed six people. The letter cites reports that Amazon threatened to fire employees if they left work. Delivery dispatchers were n’t allowed to call drivers back without Amazon’s approval, even when there was an active tornado warning.
The committee is seeking an extensive amount of information about the company’s emergency preparedness requirements, the drills it carried out in edwardsville.
Lawmakers want documents on Amazon’s internal reviews or investigations into the events in edwardsville. Amazon is requested to produce the documents by April 14th.
The legislators also bring up concerns that have arisen at other Amazon warehouses. Some of the information requests pertain to Amazon staff being told to keep working during wildfires in California, extreme heatwaves in Washington and Oregon, and hurricanes in 2017 and 2018.
This is n’t the first government investigation into Amazon’s warehouse practices in edwardsville. Two groups of lawmakers sent letters demanding answers in December. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened its own investigation.
