Holcomb Questioned Over Indiana's Probe Of Amazon Warehouse Death

Adam Pinsker & The Associated Press

Indiana’s governor is facing calls from Democrats to explain his role in Amazon being cleared of responsibility for a warehouse worker’s death despite initial findings of four major safety violations.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb denies any involvement in the state Department of Labor’s investigation of the September 2017 death at Amazon’s Plainfield warehouse, as reported Monday by the nonprofit news outlet Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

A state safety inspector levied a $28,000 find against Amazon, concluding the company didn’t provide sufficient training before a forklift that wasn’t correctly propped up fatally crushed 59-year-old Phillip Lee Terry.

The report cites a recording the inspector made in which the state’s top safety administrator tells Amazon officials how to reduce the fines and shift the blame to “employee misconduct.” The inspector’s boss later tells him, “I hope you don’t take it personally if we have to manipulate your citations.”

The final state report issued in September 2018 dropped the fine and all safety violation orders, saying that Amazon “made a sufficient showing that it met all the required elements of an unpreventable employee misconduct defense.”

The death investigation happened while the Holcomb administration touted the state’s business friendly environment in a bid to attract to Indiana Amazon’s planned second headquarters project, which could have meant 50,000 new jobs.

Holcomb's office released a statement Tuesday condemning the report:

“Let me be as clear as I possibly can be, I have never been involved in a Department of Labor case. Furthermore, I have never had a meeting with Commissioner (Rick) Ruble and an IOSHA employee. My office told “Reveal” that this information was false and yet they still published the fabricated allegations. The reporting is both irresponsible and deliberately misleading.  We are exploring any possible recourse to remove these heinous lies.”

Reveal Editor-in-Chief Matt Thompson stood by its story.

“We included a robust denial from Gov. Holcomb’s office in our story, after having reached out multiple times pre-publication for an interview with the governor,” he said. “We’d welcome the opportunity to interview him now.”

Amazon spokeswoman Ashley Robinson defended the company’s safety record but would not comment on the circumstances surrounding Terry’s death, citing privacy concerns.

The three Democrats seeking to challenge Holcomb in next year’s election all said the governor needs to explain how he and his administration handled the Amazon safety report. State Sen. Eddie Melton of Gary, former state health commissioner Woody Myers and tech business executive Josh Owens also each called for an outside investigation of the case.

“It’s a very serious matter, the people involved are responsible for worker safety in our state and if their duty wasn’t performed properly that’s an issue," says Myers.

The governor’s office and a state Republican Party spokesman didn’t comment on the Democrats’ investigation request.

State Rep. Lisa Beck of Hebron, the top Democrat on the Indiana House labor committee, said companies needed to be held accountable for meeting safety standards.

“The allegations of a cover-up by the governor and other state officials are highly disturbing and highlight the need for greater accountability in Indiana’s workplace safety programs,” Beck said. “We cannot have the very agency that is supposed to protect workers and the public interfere with and manipulate a safety investigation.”