Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico invoked a fatal medical emergency at an Amazon warehouse to condemn “corporate greed,” alleging managers told workers to look away and keep working. Amazon, pointing to a prior statement referenced by Blaze News and cited in the source text, denied that account and outlined steps it says were taken to aid the employee and support staff.
What Talarico alleged
According to the source text, Talarico spoke at a church and later posted a video of his remarks to social media. In the clip, he said: “An Amazon worker died in one of Amazon’s warehouses. And as he lay dying, management told the other workers: ‘Turn around. Don’t look. Get back to work.’ Get back to work? That was a human being. That was a child of God,” and added the death was “sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed.”
Amazon’s account of the incident
The source cites Blaze News as requesting comment from Amazon, which directed the outlet to a previously issued statement about the April death of an employee who collapsed at its Troutdale, Oregon, facility. In that statement, Amazon said: “Sadly, one of our teammates collapsed during his shift from what we now understand as a pre-existing medical issue. When our onsite team was notified, three CPR certified team members, including two from our on-site safety team, provided CPR and deployed an automated defibrillator until emergency medical services (EMS) arrived shortly after.”
Amazon’s statement continued that the area was cordoned off while safety teams and EMS cared for the worker, who later died. The company added: “Shortly after this event occurred, employees were sent home with pay for the rest of the day. When we resumed operations the following day, any employee who requested time off was given that time, and onsite grief counselors were provided to anybody who chose to come to work and needed them.”
According to the source, Amazon characterized the contrary narratives circulating online as “misinformation.”
Online criticism of Talarico
The source text quotes several unnamed online critics reacting to Talarico’s remarks, including: “Lying isn’t very Christian. And that’s what you’re doing here because that’s not what happened,” and, “Total LIE about the actual events. Do you EVER tell the truth??” Another detractor wrote, “You don’t turn someone’s distress into a sideshow … you allow medical personnel and others qualified to handle the situation and ask everyone else to leave the scene.”
Injury-rate claims and Amazon’s safety spending
The source also states that critics have pointed to broader safety concerns, asserting Amazon workers are twice as likely to be injured as non-Amazon workers and that Amazon warehouses had 30% more injuries than the industry average in 2023. According to the same source text, Amazon has responded by noting a $2.5 billion investment in increased safety standards. The source did not cite the underlying reports for those injury figures.
