ALBANY, NY (Erie News Now)--THE 48 HOUR-PRIME DISCOUNT EVENT GENERATES BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR AMAZON– AND IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF WORKER INJURIES, ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM A RECENT UNITED STATES SENATE PROBE.

WORKERS RIGHTS ADVOCATES SAid NEW YORK IN PARTICULAR IS 54 percent HIGHER THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE WHEN IT COMES TO INJURIES.
 
THEY’RE HOPING TO SEE THIS RATE GO DOWN, SOMETHING THEY SAid WILL HAPPEN IF THE GOVERNOR SIGNS legislation CALLED THE WAREHOUSE WORKER INJURY REDUCTION ACT INTO LAW. 
 
“All workers deserve health and safety at work and in New York we have an especially severe worker safety crisis in all of our warehouses across the state and we see this right now especially because it is Prime Day,” said Theo Moore, executive director of ALIGN. 
 
A SPOKESPERSON FROM AMAZON SAid THE RECENT FEDERAL REPORT IGNORES THE PROGRESS THEY’VE MADE STRESSING THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF THEIR EMPLOYEES IS THEIR TOP PRIORITY.  
 
"We’ve made significant progress—reducing our recordable incident rate in the U.S. by 28%, and our lost time incident rate by 75%. We’ve cooperated throughout this investigation, including providing thousands of pages of information and documents. But unfortunately, this report ignores our progress and paints a one-sided, false narrative," said Kelly Nantel, Amazon spokesperson. 
 
THE BILL RECEIVED BI-PARTISAN SUPPORT AND PASSED IN BOTH HOUSES IN ALBANY AT THE END OF SESSION, EARLY LAST MONTH. 
 
IF SIGNED, THE LEGISLATION WOULD REQUIRE EMPLOYERS LIKE AMAZON TO ESTABLISH AN INJURY REDUCTION PROGRAM. 
 
MOORE SAid THE LEGISLATION WOULDN’T JUST HELP NEW YORK WORKERS, BUT IT COULD HAVE AN EVEN BIGGER IMPACT BY influencing FEDERAL POLICY. 
 
“We think this could definitely be a model for the nation and for other states to actually pick up and copy and pass in their legislature, so it's implemented in states all around the country,” he said.