Amazon Warehouse in Troutdale Under Scrutiny

It had a serious injury rate of 26 per 100 workers, more than six times the industry average.

Amazon boxes. (quotecatalog.com.)
By Nigel Jaquiss

As shoppers gear up for the holidays, reporting by The Atlantic and Reveal from the Center of Investigative Reporting offers a sobering look at the human cost of Amazon's deliver-it-now business model.

Reporters gathered safety data for 23 of Amazon's 110 warehouses and found rates of serious worker injuries were more than twice the industry average.

The most dangerous facility, according to the piece, is Amazon's warehouse in Troutdale, Ore., which had a serious injury rate of 26 per 100 workers, more than six times the industry average.

An Amazon spokeswoman disputed the premise of the investigation.

"While many companies underrecord safety incidents in order to keep their rates low, Amazon does the opposite," company spokeswoman Shevaun Brown tells WW. "We take an aggressive stance on recording injuries no matter how big or small."

Correction: This story mistakenly cited an injury rate of 26 per 1,000. It is actually 26 per 100. WW regrets the error.

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