A lawsuit against Amazon was filed for its lack of safety measures following a predicted tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois, that killed six in an Amazon warehouse, and is questioning the timing of the departure of its worldwide head of safety, Heather MacDougall.
Media reports have said an internal Amazon memo dated Monday, September 12, 2022, states she is leaving in a few weeks after just three years with the company.
MacDougall’s exit comes at a time when Amazon is under intense pressure related to undercutting safety in order to put productivity first at its warehouse facilities. Amazon has faced scrutiny of late over injury rates, and the issue has helped to fuel a union uprising at some of its fulfillment centers.
The firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of a young driver who was ordered to come back to the fulfillment center despite weather reports of an impending tornado that ultimately struck the facility on December 10, killing six people inside who had not been instructed by Amazon officials on safety protocol. They ran to a bathroom for protection, but the outside walls collapsed on them.
A lawsuit against Amazon was filed in January on behalf of the family of 26-year-old Austin McEwen, a driver who was killed in the facility when the tornado struck on December 10, 2021.
The lawsuits are pending in state court in downstate Illinois.