Almost a fifth of Amazon’s delivery drivers were injured in 2021, according to a survey (which might be slanted) released by the Strategic Organizing Center, a “labor union innovation center dedicated to improving the lives of working people, partnering with its affiliates to develop effective strategies to support workers organizing for better lives for themselves and their families.” Regardless of the source, the perception arising from its release is almost certainly part of the reason why Amazon faces labor unrest and efforts toward unionization.
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The data came from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). CNBC commented that the “SOC report found that contracted Amazon delivery drivers suffer injuries at nearly two-and-a-half times the rate of the non-Amazon delivery industry.”
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According to the survey, the most common injuries were falls, muscle strains, dog bites, vehicle accidents and being struck by an object such as a fencepost. Some of these would seem to be a normal part of the delivery driver’s job, no matter who the employer is.
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The report will help fuel the fire under the Amazon labor unionization movement. Although much of its impetus is to get better pay, there is an element of improving worker safety.
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Amazon almost certainly will not hold back the unionization efforts it faces for long, just as Starbucks will be unable to. The movement has too much grassroots support from labor organizations around the country. Amazon has to learn to live with unionized workers.
Almost 20% of Amazon Drivers Injured in 2021
© courtesy of Daimler A.G./Mercedes-Benz
Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
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A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
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