An Amazon worker on the Troutdale, Oregon warehouse handed away at work final week, an organization spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.
In line with a report from the Western Edge, an impartial investigative outlet protecting the Pacific Northwest, the employee collapsed on the ground on the PDX9 warehouse and lay useless as workers continued to work round him.
“We’re deeply saddened by the passing of a member of our workforce, and our ideas and deepest sympathies are with their family members throughout this troublesome time,” Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson instructed TechCrunch. “We’ve been in contact along with his household and have supplied sources to assist them. For workers at our PDX9 facility, we’ve supplied onsite grief counselors and extra assist. We’re grateful for the work of the Multnomah County Sherrif’s Division and native emergency medical providers.”
On a Reddit forum for Amazon success heart employees, a number of folks claiming to work at PDX9 mentioned that the constructing had been particularly scorching after soundproof curtains had been put in, which restricted airflow. They speculated that the warmth might have contributed to the worker’s loss of life, as it will compound the bodily calls for of success heart work. In line with the Western Edge, some workers seen that the constructing was cooler once they returned to work the subsequent day.
Amazon, nevertheless, mentioned that Oregon’s Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) decided the incident to be non-work associated. Workers had been despatched residence early and had been paid for the rest of their shift; the night time shift was cancelled, and workers scheduled to work had been paid as nicely, in accordance with the corporate.
The PDX9 warehouse has a fame for having harsh working circumstances; in 2018, an investigation from Reveal, an investigative journalism outlet, discovered that 26% of workers on the warehouse had sustained accidents. A report based mostly on 2024 OSHA knowledge confirmed that the corporate’s success facilities report critical accidents at a charge greater than two instances the warehouse trade common.
Amazon’s success facilities have been topic to a number of probes by federal businesses and prosecutors over warehouse security, with investigators alleging that the corporate manipulated data and did not correctly doc workplace injuries. The US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York is conducting an ongoing investigation into office security at Amazon warehouses.
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Amazon instructed TechCrunch that the corporate has seen a 43% reduction in its world recordable incident charge since 2019 — a metric that tracks any work-related harm requiring greater than primary first assist. The corporate mentioned it has invested greater than $2.5 billion in security enhancements since 2019, together with lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in 2026 alone.
