(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. is obstructing a congressional investigation of a deadly December tornado by failing to provide documents about emergency preparedness and communications with workers during the storm, according to a letter from US lawmakers.
The House Oversight Committee in March asked Amazon to share details about its labor practices by April 14 after the tornado ripped through a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, killing six workers. The panel also requested information regarding conditions at Amazon facilities during extreme weather events in Florida, California, Alabama and New York as far back as 2017, which it said could influence legislation to strengthen worker protections during hazardous weather.
Amazon has failed to provide any key records for the investigation, according to the letter date June 1 and signed by Representative Carolyn Maloney, the committee chair and a New York Democrat, and fellow Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri.
“Amazon’s failure to provide key documents has obstructed the Committee’s investigation,” the House members wrote in the letter. “As an additional accommodation, the Committee will grant an extension until June 8, 2022, for Amazon to complete its document production. If Amazon fails to do so, the Committee will have no choice but to consider alternative measures to obtain full compliance.”
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the company was surprised by the committee’s letter because it has submitted more than 1,500 pages of information since receiving the initial request.
“As we have done from the start, we will continue to work with committee staff on further document production — which includes the most recent materials we shared on June 1,” Nantel said.
The committee’s initial letter to the Seattle-based company cited news reports highlighting worker concerns in the aftermath of the deadly tornado, including a Bloomberg News story that revealed a text exchange between an Amazon package delivery driver and her boss, who told the driver she’d be fired if she didn’t continue making deliveries. The driver responded that she feared her van would become her casket.
“Our investigation into Amazon’s response to the events in Edwardsville and other extreme weather events seeks to determine whether Amazon’s corporate practices put employee safety first, or whether your company, which now employs nearly one million people in the United States, is merely paying lip service to this principle,” the lawmakers wrote.
(Updates with comment from Amazon in fifth paragraph.)
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