'Chose Productivity Over Lives': 6 Die in Tornado-Hit Facility, Amazon Faces Ire

Amazon has come under the fire after six company employees lost their lives during a tornado in Illinois.

E-commerce giant Amazon has come under fire after six employees of the company lost their lives on Friday, 10 December, while working at a company warehouse in Illinois, United States, during a tornado.

(Photo: IANS)

E-commerce giant Amazon has come under fire after six of its employees lost their lives on Friday, 10 December, while working at a company warehouse in Illinois, United States (US), during a tornado.

The workers were killed after the roof of the 1.1 million square-foot distribution facility in Edwardsville collapsed due to the deadly storm.

While Amazon has claimed that the team worked "incredibly quickly" to ensure the safety of its employees by directing them to the 'shelter-in-place', first-hand testaments of the episode that have surfaced suggest otherwise.

'Didn't Let Everyone Get to Shelter After 1st Siren'

A number of claims, which suggest that Amazon did not direct its workers to take shelter when the first tornado alert came, have surfaced.

"Everyone knows that this warehouse didn’t let everyone get to shelter after the first siren was heard. Everyone knows that all Amazon cares about is productivity. My brother never would have died if this company actually gave 2 shits about their employees and got them to safety after the storm started to get bad and took it seriously," said Rachel Cope, sister of deceased employee Clayton Cope, in a Facebook post.

Clayton Cope, 29, was a maintenance mechanic contracting for Amazon.

"No one would have been frantically getting to the shelter last minute and my brother wouldn’t have had to help people get to the shelter and put his life at risk. I want them to answer for this, I want this to be a starting point of places taking the lives of their employees seriously and treating them as more than a number," Cope added.

Clayton's mother, Carla, said in an interview that she had called her son to warn him of the tornado's approach. Clayton, who had previously trained in the navy, told his mother that he would first warn his co-workers, Carla told NBC-affiliated television station KSDK.

“When we pulled up to the building it was pretty devastating,” Clayton's mother told The New York Times (NYT), adding, “There were trucks and rescue vehicles everywhere, a lot of chaos.”

She told NYT that her husband, who also worked at the same job, when he saw the destroyed building, knew that their son was likely to have been in the part of the building that collapsed.

'We Were Sent to the Bathrooms'

"I was just getting in the building and they started screaming, "Shelter in place!'" David Kosiak, who has been working at the facility for three months, told BBC.

"We were in the bathrooms. That's where they sent us," he stated.

Twenty-six-year-old Austin J McEwen, a cargo driver who had been present at the site during the tornado, died in the bathroom, where many workers said that they had been directed to shelter.

'Amazon Won't Let Us Leave'

"Amazon won't let us leave," Larry Virden had messaged his girlfriend on Friday, before the storm hit the Illinois warehouse where he was working. "I will be home after the storm," he had reportedly told her on text.

“I messaged him and that was the last text message I got from him,” his girlfriend Cherie Jones told The New York Post.

Virden is survived by four children.

Amazon employees Deandre Morrow, Kevin Dickey, and Etheria S Hebb have also been identified as dead.

The incident has stirred widespread censure, with many questioning whether Amazon should have called its employees to work despite the weather alerts, and whether adequate arrangements were made for their safety by the conglomerate.

'Team Worked Quickly To Ensure Shelter': What Amazon Has Said

"Our team worked quickly to ensure as many employees and partners could get to the designated Shelter in Place," Amazon maintained in a statement, reported CNN.

"We’re deeply saddened by the news that members of our Amazon family passed away as a result of the storm in Edwardsville, IL. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by the tornado. We also want to thank all the first responders for their ongoing efforts on scene. We’re continuing to provide support to our employees and partners in the area,” company spokesperson Kelly Nantel said at a press conference on Sunday.

"All of Edwardsville should know that the Amazon team is committed to supporting them and will be by their side through this crisis. We extend our fullest gratitude to all the incredible first responders who have worked so tirelessly at the site," Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said, tweeting his condolences.

Other senior officials of the company, including CEO Andy Jassy, also tweeted their condolences.