An employee died on the job recently at Amazon's PDX9 warehouse in Troutdale, Oregon. Amazon has confirmed the news to the media. According to the independent investigative media "Western Edge", the employee died after falling to the ground in the warehouse, and other employees on site continued to work next to his body.
Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson said in a statement to the media that the company was "deeply saddened" by the death of the team member and sent condolences to his family, adding that it had contacted the family to provide relevant support. He also said that the company provided on-site grief counseling and additional support to employees at the PDX9 campus, and expressed gratitude to the local county police department and emergency department for their work.
On the Reddit forum for Amazon fulfillment center employees, several users who claimed to work at PDX9 posted that after the warehouse had previously installed soundproof curtains, the air circulation was restricted and the body temperature increased significantly. They speculated that the high temperature environment combined with the high-intensity physical labor of the fulfillment center itself may have been one of the causes of the death. According to the Western Edge report, some employees noticed that the temperature inside the factory had dropped when they returned to work the day after the incident.
However, Amazon said the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has determined the incident to be "non-work related." According to the company, the employees on duty were sent home early after the incident and were paid for the entire shift. The night shift was also canceled that night, and employees who were scheduled to go to work also received their pay as usual.
The PDX9 warehouse has been known for its "harsh" working conditions in the past. As early as 2018, a report by the investigative media Reveal showed that about 26% of employees in the warehouse had been injured at work. According to a report produced by the Strategic Organizing Center based on 2024 OSHA data, the reporting rate for serious injuries in Amazon fulfillment centers is more than twice the warehousing industry average.
In recent years, security issues at Amazon warehouses have repeatedly attracted the attention of U.S. federal agencies and prosecutors. Investigators accused the company of "faking" or manipulating injury data and failing to adequately record work-related injuries. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is still investigating workplace safety issues at Amazon warehouses.
In the face of external doubts, Amazon told the media that since 2019, the company's global "recordable accident rate" (referring to work-related injuries that require more than basic first aid treatment) has dropped by 43%. The company said it has invested more than $2.5 billion in security improvements since 2019, with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in security-related upgrades in 2026 alone.