Warehousing

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.

The average estimated cost of a new warehouse building in Edwardsville was more than $16 million in the past five years. A tornado shelter adds less than 2% to that overall cost.