Amazon On Covid-19 Cases: ‘It's Not a Particularly Useful Number’
The company’s refusal to provide a tally has deepened mistrust at U.S. warehouses, where absenteeism has been high.
A demoonstrator speaks during a protest outside an Amazon facility in Staten Island, New York on May 1.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergAmazon.com Inc.’s global logistics chief Dave Clark, in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, said the spread of Covid-19 in the e-commerce giant’s warehouses is no worse than what’s happening in America at large. But when pressed, he declined to provide a total number of cases, making it impossible to independently confirm the company’s assertion.
Clark said the Amazon knows how many cases have afflicted its warehouses but declined to share the total because, he said, “it’s not a particularly useful number.” His comments echo what company spokespeople have been saying for several weeks, prompting workers and officials to press executives to be more forthcoming about illness in their ranks. The latest demand came Tuesday from attorneys general in 12 states and Washington, D.C., who called on Amazon to reveal a state-by-state breakdown of the number of Amazon and Whole Foods workers “who have been infected with and died from Covid-19.”