Warehousing

Formed after the 2021 tornado that killed six Amazon employees in Edwardsville, the task force is required to submit the report to the Illinois General Assembly by Jan. 1, 2025.

While the exterior of the warehouse was nearly complete about a year after the tornado hit, construction crews have since worked on the interior of the delivery station.

Amazon employees, nurses and workers rights advocates gathered to call out working conditions they say don’t help employees stay healthy.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company would welcome the agency into its sites at any time.

In response to the collapse of the Amazon warehouse that killed six employees during a December 2021 tornado, Illinois lawmakers hope to recommend increased safety measures by 2025.

Although the bills would apply to companies beyond Amazon, Bush was clear in saying they were a response to the six warehouse workers who died last year in Edwardsville.

“You have people that they’ve been coached to be concerned with basically Amazon’s belongings," one worker said. "That doesn’t make any sense to me. The response should simply be to seek shelter immediately.”

The federal workplace safety agency has been investigating the deaths of six people at the facility since a tornado hit it in December.

Both new lawsuits join a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed earlier this year on behalf of one of the six Amazon workers who died during the tornado.

There aren’t local or statewide rules in Illinois ensuring workers in the nearly 30 warehouses surrounding the Amazon facility that collapsed in December will be any safer the next time a tornado strikes the St. Louis region.