Prime day is an exciting one for consumers eagerly awaiting deals on Amazon for just about any product they need and most of those purchases can show up at your door within just a day or two but what does it take on the back end to make that happen Melissa Rose Cooper looks at the impact of prime day on Amazon workers who've long complained of insufferable working conditions when workers are uh asserting for themselves the need to have safe enough conditions to be able to survive they can be put in a position where they have to choose between a paycheck they can't be under the threat whether explicit or implicit that they're not going to have a job if they protect their life yet Garrett O'Connor says that's what many Amazon workers are experiencing as the Director of worker organizing and policy for make the row New Jersey he says members often share stories of working under extremely tense conditions especially during Peak periods like Amazon Prime day last summer starting on Friday lost their lives course of three weeks the death of Rafael Mota which was the highest profile of those three deaths got a lot of attention for good reason you know according to reporting uh Rafael Moto's co-workers clearly blamed excessive heat uh in the workplace and production pressure uh from Amazon uh for his death an OSHA investigation into the incident concluded there were no hazardous conditions that led to his death but many workers here in New Jersey and across the country have been complaining about working conditions at Amazon for years Amazon has somewhat increased pay at the warehouses since the behind because it has to assembly to attract enough workers in a pretty tight labor market so that's not been the issue so much as these as these conditions the incredible pressure that workers find themselves on Earth Alec McGillis is a reporter at propublica and the author of the book fulfillment which details his research into Amazon's working conditions what I found was just that there was as other studies have shown a high rate of of injuries and fatalities at Amazon warehouses compared with other other warehouses partly because there's just such incredible intense pressure um to to meet certain uh production numbers certain rates at Amazon warehouses it's just a very Relentless place to work um just incredibly repetitive work incredibly isolating work but above all just this incredible pressure to meet these to meet these rates according to our recent report from the union-affiliated Strategic organizing Center Federal data submitted by Amazon to OSHA show workers and Amazon facilities sustained nearly 39 000 injuries in 2022 and that while Amazon employed 36 percent of all U.S warehouse workers in 2022 the company was responsible for more than half 53 percent of all serious injuries in the industry but Amazon says the findings are based on manipulated data a a spokesperson issuing a statement saying we take the health and safety of our employees very seriously and have more than 8 000 safety and health professionals dedicated to protecting employees not just during Prime day but every day it's wholly inappropriate to use misleading information from self-interested groups and unrelated anecdotes from the past to draw a conclusion about safety during Prime day meanwhile some lawmakers support the need to prefer the investigation the idea of when you go to work you should be expected to come home the same way you go to work if all your limbs attached and safe so we want to make sure no matter where you work but in this case we're talking about Amazon is that the workers go in they come home the same way Amazon maintains the health of workers is their top priority and they do whatever is needed to ensure safety on the job but worker Advocates say it's not enough and are pushing for lawmakers to hold the company to higher standards for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper support for the business report provided by the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey working for economic Prosperity by uniting business and Community leaders for 150 years membership and event information online at chamber snj.com [Music] [Music]