Fire sale: Amazon prepares for Prime Day amid record heat

Amazon warehouse workers are preparing for a hot, hot Prime Day.

The two-day sale comes a week after the hottest days recorded on Earth and the warmest month on record since at least 1940.

Heat has become a flashpoint between Amazon and other logistics companies and their workers. Amazon has come under fire for enforcing a strenuous pace at facilities that don’t always have air conditioning or other heat mitigation tools.

Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson pointed to a range of cooling measures the company is taking to control the temperatures in its warehouses.

All Amazon delivery vehicles have AC and other cooling supplies for drivers, according to Stephenson. He said Amazon is "as prepared as ever" for Prime Day.

Prime Day is a two-day shopping event created by Amazon to drive sales during the summer months. This year it takes place July 11-12. Like the holiday shopping season, Prime Day is a big lift for Amazon's vast network of logistics workers. Unlike the holidays, it comes at one of the warmest times of the year.

The injury rate at Amazon warehouses is more than double the rate in competitors’ facilities, according to a report by the union-affiliated Strategic Organizing Center.

"There will always be ways for our critics to splice data to suit their narrative, but the fact is, we’ve made progress and our numbers clearly show it," Stephenson said.

He noted Amazon has reduced its rate of recordable injuries by more than 23% since 2019, per data the company reports to OSHA.

Lawmakers in several states are wading into the debate over warehouse worker safety. In May, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law that limits how companies like Amazon can set productivity quotas in warehouses.

“Prime Day is a prime example of the unreasonable expectations that Amazon places on its workforce to deliver products at very low prices, but at high speed and breakneck delivery rates,” said Rep. Beth Doglio, the bill’s primary sponsor.

“We're having a heatwave,” she added. “It becomes more and more difficult for workers across the country, because warehouses are often not adequately climate controlled, and that can lead to even worse outcomes and health issues.”

A warehouse worker in New Jersey died during Prime Day last summer amid a heat wave. OSHA investigated and found Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias died of a “cardiac event” that was “unrelated to work.”

An increasingly contentious labor dispute between UPS and the union representing its drivers also centers, in part, on heat. The Teamsters union is demanding UPS do more to adapt to extreme heat. The company tentatively agreed to equip all new delivery vehicles with AC before negotiations broke down this week.

Extreme heat is not just an Amazon or a UPS problem.

Rising global temperatures combined with a climate pattern known as El Niño are making work more difficult for a broad swath of workers. The extreme heat is particularly dangerous for some of the most vulnerable and often overlooked members of the labor force, like agricultural workers.