"Lawsuit Seeks OSHA Records on Deaths of 3 Amazon Workers"

A worker activist has sued the Department of Labor (DOL) to force the release of records surrounding the deaths of three workers at New Jersey Amazon workplaces in 2022.

The lawsuit says DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which Amazon says opened investigations into all three deaths, has not responded to a freedom of information act (FOIA) request for documents relating to the deaths of Rafael Mota Frias, Rodger Boland, and Eric Vadinsky.

“We have questions about Amazon’s working conditions and conduct that we hope to be able to answer through gaining access to these investigations,” the lawsuit filed by Daniel Schlademan says ...

Schlademan is an organizer with the Online to Offline Strategy Group, an organization supporting the Warehouse Life, which advocates for better working conditions. Warehouse Life’s current campaign, #ExposeAmazon, centers on Amazon’s injury rate.

New Jersey lawmakers are currently considering a heat standard bill that the lawsuit maintains might have protected workers like the three who died in 2022 if it had been in place three years ago.

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Amazon says OSHA investigated all three deaths and found no fault on Amazon’s part. OSHA has not released findings on Boland or Vadinsky.

“These were tragic incidents and it’s really disappointing that some people are working to twist them into something they weren’t,” said Maureen Lynch Vogel, Amazon spokesperson in a statement. “As is standard in these situations, OSHA conducted thorough investigations and closed all three without citations or allegations of wrong-doing on Amazon’s part, and there’s no evidence that heat was a contributing factor in any of them.”

Amazon also says it has taken its own steps to address heat conditions in the workplace ...