Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
As e-commerce giant amazon.com inc. prepares to launch its annual Prime Day sale in October after a series of pandemic-related delays, a new report is alleging that the company’s automated warehouses push workers to fulfill orders so fast that Amazon employees suffer injuries at greater rates than the industry average.
The report, “How Amazon hid its safety crisis,” was published Tuesday by Reveal, a unit of the Emeryville, California-based Center for Investigative Reporting. According to that analysis, the company’s own statistics show that Seattle-based Amazon ignores its internal safety standards during the rush to process e-commerce orders during peak periods such as Prime Day and the winter holiday shopping season.
In a statement, Amazon said “We strongly refute the claims that we’ve misled anyone,” calling the report “misinformed” and claiming that the reporter is misinterpreting data. Specifically, the company said the report mistakes a statistic known as a DART rate—an acronym for “days away and restricted or transferred work,” as measured by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—as being equivalent to a serious injury rate.
“The reality is that there is no such OSHA or industry ‘serious injury rate,’ and our DART rate is actually supportive of employees as it encourages someone with any type of injury, for example a small strain or sprain, to stay away from work until they’re better,” Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty said in an email. “While we often accommodate employees with restrictions so that they can continue to work with full pay and benefits, we don’t believe an employer should be penalized when it encourages an associate to remain away from work if that will better promote their healing.”
According to Amazon, it has actually seen improvements in injury prevention and reduction, due to programs such as: improved ergonomics, guided physical and wellness exercises, mechanical workstation assistance equipment, improving workstation setup and design, forklift telematics, and forklift guardrails to separate equipment from pedestrians, Lighty said.
However, the report gives new weight to accusations that the company has long pushed its workers too hard. In 2019, government regulators with the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) released a report called “Time Off Task: Pressure, Pain, and Productivity at Amazon” that focused on the company’s workplace practices at a Staten Island, New York facility.
In reaction, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) applauded that criticism. “Testing hundreds of thousands of workers’ physical limits is the wrong approach to increasing productivity,” RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said in a release. “Operating at speeds where ‘80% of workers feel pressured’ means Amazon needs to hire more workers, under more sustainable speeds that don’t put worker’s lives in jeopardy. Amazon needs to understand that human beings are not robots.”
The latest report from Reveal echoes many of those charges, saying that Amazon’s massive deployment of robots to fulfillment centers was originally intended to reduce the physical strain on workers by bringing racks of inventory to them, instead of requiring employees to walk through miles of aisles every day in search of items to pick.
However, the report says that Amazon soon raised its expectations for how many inventory pieces each worker had to pick and pack per hour, and those high expectations led many laborers to cut corners or skip safety steps, leading to increased rates of injury such as muscle strains caused by repetitive use or improper lifting stances.
Economic activity in the logistics industry continued its expansion streak in October, growing for the 11th straight month and reaching its highest level in two years, according to the most recent Logistics Managers’ Index report (LMI), released this week.
The LMI registered 58.9, up from 58.6 in September, and continued a run of moderate growth that began late in 2023. The LMI is a monthly measure of business activity across warehousing and transportation markets. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, and a reading below 50 indicates contraction.
October’s reading showed the fastest rate of expansion in the overall index since September of 2022, when the index hit 61.4. The results show that the industry is continuing its steady recovery from the volatility and sluggish freight market conditions that plagued the sector just after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the LMI researchers.
“The big takeaway is that we’re continuing the slow, steady recovery,” said LMI researcher Zac Rogers, associate professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University. “I think, ultimately, it’s better to have the slow and steady recovery because it is more sustainable.”
All eight of the LMI’s indices grew during the month, with the Transportation Prices index showing the most growth, at nearly 6 points higher than September, reflecting increased activity across transportation markets. Transportation capacity expanded slightly during the month, remaining just above the 50-point threshold. Rogers said more capacity will enter the market if prices continue to rise, citing idle capacity across the market due to overbuilding during the pandemic years.
“Normally we don’t have this much slack in the market,” he said. “We overbuilt in 2021, so there’s more slack available to soak up this additional demand.”
The LMI is a monthly survey of logistics managers from across the country. It tracks industry growth overall and across eight areas: inventory levels and costs; warehousing capacity, utilization, and prices; and transportation capacity, utilization, and prices. The report is released monthly by researchers from Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and the University of Nevada, Reno, in conjunction with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP).
The port worker strike that began yesterday on Canada’s west coast could cost that country $765 million a day in lost trade, according to the ALPS Marine analysis by Russell Group, a British data and analytics company.
Specifically, the labor strike at the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Fraser-Surrey will hurt the commodities of furniture, metal products, meat products, aluminum, and clothing. But since the strike action is focused on stopping containers and general cargo, it will not slow operations in grain vessels or cruise ships, the firm said.
“The Canadian port strike is a microcosm of many of the issues that are impacting Western economies today; protection against automation, better work-life balance, and a cost-of-living crisis,” Russell Group Managing Director Suki Basi said in a release. “Taken together, these pressures are creating a cocktail of connected risk for countries, business, individuals and entire sectors such as marine insurance, which help to mitigate cargo exposures.”
The strike is also sending ripples through neighboring U.S. ports, which are hustling to absorb the diverted cargo, according to David Kamran, assistant vice president for Moody’s Ratings.
“The recurrence of strikes at Canadian seaports is positive for U.S. ports that may gain cargo throughput, depending on the strike duration,” Kamran said in a statement. “The current dispute at Vancouver is another example of the resistance of port unions to automation and the social risk involved with implementing these technologies. Persistent disruption in Canadian port access would strengthen the competitive position of US West Coast ports over the medium-term, as shippers seek to diversify cargo away from unreliable gateways.”
The strike is also affected rail movements, according to ocean cargo carrier Maersk. CN has stopped all international intermodal shipments bound for the west coast ports of Prince Rupert, Robbank, Centerm, Vanterm, and Fraser Surrey Docks. And CPKC has stopped acceptance of all export loads and pre-billed empties destined for Vancouver ports.
Connected with the turmoil, Maersk has suspended its import and export carrier demurrage and detention clock for most affected operations. The ultimate duration of the strike is unknown, but the situation is “rapidly evolving” as talks continue between the Longshore Workers Union (ILWU 514) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), Maersk said.
Consulting firm Accenture has taken another step to bulk up its supply chain advisory capabilities, announcing Monday that it has acquired Allitix, a California-based consulting and technology company specializing in Anaplan solutions with capabilities across financial planning and analysis, sales performance management, and supply chain.
Anaplan is a Florida provider of corporate performance management (CPM) systems, which it defines as enterprise cloud software that empowers organizations to see, plan, and lead better business outcomes by aligning their strategic objectives and resources.
Allitix provides tailored Anaplan-based solutions across finance, sales, supply chain, and human resources functions, with specific competencies in the manufacturing, consumer, technology, media and telecom, and financial services industries.
“Demand for connected enterprise planning is on the rise, given its ability to unlock business value and spur total enterprise reinvention,” David Leckstein, senior managing director and lead, Americas Technology at Accenture, said in a release. “Allitix’s highly skilled talent, deep domain expertise, and agile approach to implementation complements our broader digital capabilities and further expands our ability to deliver integrated enterprise planning transformations for our clients that drive better, faster insights and bottom-line value.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Accenture said that the acquisition adds 73 employees, including over 60 Anaplan functional and technical professionals to Accenture Technology in North America, with expertise across solution architecture, model building, integration, and data management.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Mode Global said it will now assume Jillamy's comprehensive logistics and freight management solutions, while Jillamy's warehousing, packaging and fulfillment services remain unchanged. Under the agreement, Mode Global will gain more than 200 employees and add facilities in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Illinois, South Carolina, Maryland, and Ontario to its existing national footprint.
Chalfont, Pennsylvania-based Jillamy calls itself a 3PL provider with expertise in international freight, intermodal, less than truckload (LTL), consolidation, over the road truckload, partials, expedited, and air freight.
"We are excited to welcome the Jillamy freight team into the Mode Global family," Lance Malesh, Mode’s president and CEO, said in a release. "This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our growth strategy and aligns perfectly with Mode's strategic vision to expand our footprint, ensuring we remain at the forefront of the logistics industry. Joining forces with Jillamy enhances our service portfolio and provides our clients with more comprehensive and efficient logistics solutions."
In addition to its flagship Clorox bleach product, Oakland, California-based Clorox manages a diverse catalog of brands including Hidden Valley Ranch, Glad, Pine-Sol, Burt’s Bees, Kingsford, Scoop Away, Fresh Step, 409, Brita, Liquid Plumr, and Tilex.
British carbon emissions reduction platform provider M2030 is designed to help suppliers measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions. The new partnership aims to advance decarbonization throughout Clorox's value chain through the collection of emissions data, jointly identified and defined actions for reduction and continuous upskilling.
The program, which will record key figures on energy, will be gradually rolled out to several suppliers of the company's strategic raw materials and packaging, which collectively represents more than half of Clorox's scope 3 emissions.
M2030 enables suppliers to regularly track and share their progress with other customers using the M2030 platform. Suppliers will also be able to export relevant compatible data for submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global disclosure system to manage environmental data.
"As part of Clorox's efforts to foster a cleaner world, we have a responsibility to ensure our suppliers are equipped with the capabilities necessary for forging their own sustainability journeys," said Niki King, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Clorox Company. "Climate action is a complex endeavor that requires companies to engage all parts of their supply chain in order to meaningfully reduce their environmental impact."