Amazon recently opened its a West Humboldt Park warehouse, and workers’ rights advocates and labor organizers, are rightfully concerned that the corporation’s frightful employee safety record in Illinois will spread to yet another location. Amazon workers at some Chicago-area warehouses face a serious injury rate almost twice that of the statewide average, according to a recent analysis by Block Club Chicago
Collective bargaining and community organizing have a big role to play in ensuring that Amazon workers receive the full protection they are entitled to. But Amazon’s ability to churn through employees, leaving them bruised and broken, is also connected to its outsize power across the economy and in local labor markets.
