St. Peters workers file federal complaint over Amazon working conditions

ST. PETERS, Mo. (KMOV) - Workers at the STL8 Amazon facility in St. Peters filed a complaint with OSHA on Thursday.

Workers tell News 4 that Amazon does not provide safety for the employees, and they want a federal investigation.

Wendy Taylor has worked at the St. Peters location for about three years and says workers deserve to be compensated fairly while also feeling safe on the job and treated with respect.

“Amazon takes up a bigger part of my life than anything, yet every day is a struggle to make ends meet for my family,” Taylor says.

In March, Taylor says she tripped over an empty pallet and fell.

Taylor and other St. Peters Amazon workers say they want the feds to help them get better treatment at their worksite.

“We have no future if we don’t take matters into our own hands and take back our lives from a company that continues to dehumanize us for the sake of profit,” Taylor says.

In recent weeks and months, workers at the St. Peters facility have protested.

Then and now, one of their issues is what they say is a lack of medical care provided by AmCare, Amazon’s in-house medical unit.

We reached out to Amazon, which tells us its staff is only for first aid and no further treatment. If it requires care beyond first aid, AmCare refers the employee to seek outside care.

Former deputy assistant secretary of labor at OSHA, Jordan Barab, says Amazon has twice the rate of serious injuries of any other similar employer in America.

“Ergonomic hazards, the pace of work and Amazon’s disciplinary system all work together to undermine worker safety,” Barab says.

An Amazon spokesperson tells us at the St. Peters facility in 2022, the recordable injury rate was below the industry average.

Worker Jennifer Crane is a single mom to seven, with two of her kids also working at Amazon.

“The speed at which we’re forced to work is causing serious injuries,” Crane says. “Amazon’s intense monitoring of our every move means we work in constant fear of getting written up or fired for not making our rate.”

In October, Crane also claims she was injured on the job.

“Some of the simplest tasks I have at home, like prepping meals for my kids, have gotten harder because of my injury.”

Amazon spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel sent News 4 this statement:

”We welcome OSHA into our sites at any time, and we’re confident they’ll see a clean, safe facility in St. Peters. The site has a consistent track record of safety improvement, and publicly available data shows the site’s recordable injury rate is below the warehousing industry average and has improved more than 55% since 2019. The vast majority of employees at this facility say in anonymous surveys that they feel safe at work and believe their managers are always looking for ways to enhance safety further. We’re happy to work with OSHA to answer questions and provide information they may request.”

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