Last week, we released a major investigation into workplace safety at Amazon warehouses across the U.S.

Illustration by Jason Raish for Reveal

Last week, we released a major investigation into workplace safety at Amazon warehouses ([link removed]) across the U.S.

We amassed injury records from 23 of the company’s 110 fulfillment centers nationwide. Taken together, the rate of serious injuries for those facilities was more than double the national average for the warehousing industry: 9.6 serious injuries per 100 full-time workers in 2018, compared with an industry average that year of 4.

Our story zoomed in on the human cost of Amazon’s relentless push for speed.

In California: A 54-year-old worker named Candice Dixon destroyed her back in just two months on the job. An Amazon-approved doctor said she had bulging discs and diagnosed her with a back sprain, joint inflammation and chronic pain. Today, she says her workers’ compensation settlement is about to run out, and she’s struggling to land a new job. She is afraid she might lose her home.

In Indiana: A warehouse worker was killed in a forklift accident that one safety inspector later concluded was Amazon’s fault. Yet the state, which was jockeying to land Amazon’s coveted HQ2, scrubbed away citations that had been issued by the state safety inspector.

In Oregon: A disabled veteran sustained back and ankle injuries while working in Amazon’s Troutdale fulfillment center. His final written warning came after his productivity dipped to 98.45% of Amazon’s expected quota, costing him his job.

Our story has caused some major ripples since it first landed a week ago. Robert Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary, encouraged Amazon shoppers to ask themselves ([link removed]) “whether your convenience was worth the injuries incurred by hundreds of workers.” Meanwhile, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said the stories coming out of Amazon warehouses and fulfillment centers are “deeply disturbing” ([link removed]) and called on the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate.
An Amazon fulfillment center in California. Photo by Paul Kuroda for Reveal.

More from our project …
* Check out the injury records of the warehouses that handle your packages. ([link removed])
* Current and former employees have a right to request these injury records. Here’s how to do it. ([link removed])
* Were you injured at an Amazon warehouse? We want to hear from you. ([link removed])
* Are you a local reporter interested in digging into this issue? Sign up for our Behind the Smiles Reporting Network. ([link removed])

Photo illustration by Sarah Mirk. Photo source: Public domain.


** Building a wall out of red tape
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Since taking office, President Donald Trump has been a vocal proponent of hard-line policies for people who cross into the United States without proper documentation. Behind the scenes, his administration also has cracked down on immigrants who have checked every box on the path to legal citizenship. That’s what this week’s episode ([link removed]) is all about.

Every year, 80,000 immigrants rely on H-1B visas to work legally in the U.S., and in many ways, they seem to embody the kind of highly skilled immigrants Trump says he wants. Yet H-1B denials are surging under his administration. Mother Jones reporter Sinduja Rangarajan investigates what’s behind the trend and whether people are being denied for legitimate reasons.

Read Rangarajan’s story. ([link removed])

Reveal’s Laura C. Morel follows up with the story of a visa created by Congress to build trust between law enforcement and undocumented immigrants who become victims of violent crime. The U visa is meant to help police put criminals behind bars, but many agencies aren’t using it the way it was intended.

Read Morel’s story. ([link removed])

In our final story, Monica Campbell of PRI’s “The World” travels to a citizenship ceremony to report on how the process of becoming a U.S. citizen is becoming more difficult and potentially a whole lot more expensive.

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