WWJ Statement on Worker Death at MDW2 Amazon Cross-Dock Facility in Joliet

WWJ staff stand outside MDW2 holding an "In Memory of Roger" poster with signatures from his co-workers at the facility.

Joliet, June 27, 2023 – Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ) has been engaging with MDW2 workers since we received news of the worker fatality on Friday, June 2. On Friday, June 9, workers hosted a gathering during lunch to pay tribute to their departed colleague, Roger Kieca.
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Despite Amazon’s quick declaration that Roger died of natural causes and that his untimely death had nothing to do with his working conditions, Amazon’s internal healthcare service, “Amcare”, told 911 that dehydration was the cause of Roger’s medical crisis. 

Given the high temperatures that day, and the fact that, according to city records, another warehouse worker was hospitalized across the street with “dizziness” just hours later, workplace conditions seem very likely to have been a contributing factor in this workplace tragedy. 

“It is unconscionable that a worker died at MDW2 and, instead of a good faith and transparent review of internal policies that could have led to this tragedy, Amazon is doing whatever it can to sweep the incident under the rug,” said Marcos Ceniceros, Executive Director of Warehouse Workers for Justice. “Workers deserve to feel safe at work and that’s only possible when their employers are clear and honest in addressing workplace tragedies to ensure they never happen again.” 

After weeks of engaging with workers, WWJ has a number of outstanding questions and concerns: 

• Does the Amazon policy of threatening workers with disciplinary action if they call 911 from their personal phones place workers at undue risk?
  • In the case of a serious medical emergency, like cardiac arrest, the prohibition on calling 911 directly could lead to severe medical consequences, even death
• Given that workers broadly reject the company narrative that the entire facility is kept below 77 degrees at all times, why are workers not being trained on how to identify symptoms of heat stroke, extreme dehydration, and other critical conditions?
  
  

Amazon has also refused to answer critical questions regarding the role Amcare played in this tragedy, including: 

• What time Roger arrived at Amcare 
• What condition Roger was in when he was found by colleagues and when he arrived at Amcare
• How long it took Amcare to call an ambulance for Roger
  
  

It is critical for workers to understand if there was anything more that could have been done to save the life of their colleague and coworker. Many workers are aware of the limitations of Amcare with one worker relaying that “I went to Amcare with a headache and they gave me Tums”. The lack of transparency around Amcare’s handling of this medical emergency, coupled with Amazon’s refusal to allow associates to seek medical treatment on their own, has created real concerns among some workers about their ability to access timely medical care in the case of an emergency. 

This is not the first time that emergency response protocols have been called into question at MDW2. When a maintenance technician died at the neighboring facility in 2019, a lawsuit alleged that Amazon failed to render emergency aid, waited to call the paramedics, and delayed them once they arrived at the facility. 
According to the recent report “The Injury Machine”, despite being injured at nearly twice the rate as the industry average, Amazon workers are over 3x as likely to continue working through the injury. This abusive corporate practice has deadly consequences when workers experience grave medical situations, such as happened at the MDW2 facility on June 2. 

In light of the deadly risks, we are calling on Amazon to share greater details around how it plans to minimize response time for medical emergencies. In the absence of that transparency, we are asking the relevant authorities to seek greater oversight of industry practices with regard to emergency medical services to ensure that all warehouse workers across Will County are kept safe. 

Warehouse Workers for Justice will continue monitoring this situation and the broader workplace conditions at area warehouses. Should any workers feel unsafe at work, especially as Summer days make many warehouses dangerously hot, we urge them to reach out to us at (815) 722-5003.

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