NYC Comptroller Lander Delivers Remarks at Amazon, Inc.’s Annual Shareholder Meeting

New York, NY – Today, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander delivered remarks at Amazon, Inc.’s annual shareholder meeting. Full text of Comptroller Lander’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are available below.

Comptroller Lander, along with the five New York City Retirement Systems, filed a shareholder proposal calling on Amazon, Inc.’s (AMZN) Board of Directors to issue a report on the company’s health and safety practices and whether they lead to any racial and gender disparities in workplace injury rates. Comptroller Lander and the Systems also launched a “vote no” campaign calling on Amazon shareholders to oppose the re-election of Directors Judith McGrath and Daniel Huttenlocher, and were joined in that effort by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer.

Thank you. As New York City Comptroller, I am presenting proposal 9 on behalf of the New York City Pension Funds, with Amazon record date shares valued at more than $2.5 billion.   

Amazon’s warehouse workers are injured more frequently and severely, than in non-Amazon warehouses. The company has not disputed these findings.  

While Amazon’s proxy statement touts lower injury rates in the U.S. in 2020, those rates reportedly rose 20% in 2021, and surged 64% here in New York. 

Amazon’s injury and illness rates may have a more pronounced impact on the health, long-term earnings and career potential of its racially and ethnically diverse warehouse employees.  

That’s why we’ve made our case to shareholders to vote for Proposal 9 to provide investors with transparency into how Amazon evaluates the adverse impacts of its health and safety practices on these employees. 

And that’s why we’ve urged shareholders to join us in voting against Directors McGrath and Huttenlocher, long-time members of the board’s Leadership Development and Compensation Committee, who we believe have failed to provide independent oversight of human capital management on behalf of shareholders.  

Today I also want to speak directly to the board.  

As shareholders, we elect you to ensure that company management protects workers’ health and safety. 

To address unsustainable employee turnover. And to uphold Amazon’s policies on human rights, including the company’s proclaimed commitment to freedom of association including the right to join a union without interference. 

We do not have confidence that you are doing that job.  

You have failed to provide adequate independent oversight of Amazon’s human capital management, as evidenced by those injury and turnover rates, and by repeated interference with Amazon employees’ efforts to exercise their rights. 

Amazon is one of the most influential companies in the world, and the second largest employer in the U.S. Your leadership, or your lack of leadership, matters to the wellbeing of millions of households, to the company’s bottom-line, and to long term value for shareholders.  

What will you do to show us that you will hold management accountable?  

Thank you. 

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