In 2025, our growing Illinois warehousing industry comes with unacceptably high risk of work injuries.
The warehousing industry in Chicago as well as the rest of Illinois is one of biggest employers and contributors to our local economies. It’s not just Amazon.
Consider this: Chicagoland’s Centerpoint Intermodal Center is the largest inland port in North America. And the record-setting, global Northpoint Third-Coast-Intermodal Hub, to be located in Joliet and “less than ten miles from the three major interstates connecting Chicagoland (I-80, I-55, I-355)” is promoted as sitting “…on America’s largest inland port and ensures an efficient supply chain for international operations to all major sea and inland ports.” Read, Third Coat Intermodal Hub Brochure, published by North Point Development, March 2022.
Huge warehouses fill the Chicagoland area as well as the state. In 2024, one in six Illinois residents lived within a half-mile of an Illinois mega-warehouse according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
Why? According to Chicago’s Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ), not only is our location here in the heartland of America something that makes it “…indispensable in the national supply chain…” there are other factors that contribute to our blossoming warehousing industry. Among them, according to WWJ, is that “[n]ortheast Illinois is also home to seven Class I rail carriers with more than 1300 freight, passenger, and commuter trains passing through the region daily.”
With all this warehousing comes risk. WWJ also warns that warehouse work remains unacceptably dangerous for those employed in the industry. Too many safety regulations are ignored or disrespected. Too often, to avoid responsibility, employers hire workers through temporary staffing companies.
Warehousing workers in Chicagoland and throughout the Crossroads of America need to be very aware of the extreme dangers they face on the job, as well as the legal complexities created by who employs them and how they are paid. Warehousing is very, very dangerous and companies (and their insurance carriers) are adept at finding ways to limit their legal liability for accident injuries and deaths.
For more, read: Fatal Industrial Warehouse Accidents in Indiana and Illinois; and Amazon Warehouse Workers: Risk of Severe Bodily Injury or Death on the Job as OSHA Investigations Continue.
Warehousing Industry Extremely Dangerous and Often Deadly
Things are not getting safer for those employed in our local warehousing industry. These are high-risk workplaces where the risk of being hurt on the job is steadily on the rise. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor released its finding that within a five-year time period (2016 to 2021), the number of warehouse worker injuries doubled. Almost half (39%) were so serious that the worker had to stay off the job for at least a month.
Illinois’ renown National Safety Council (“NSC”) warns us that transportation and warehousing is the third most dangerous industry in this country, surpassed only by (1) agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting and (2) construction. And the NSC confirms that warehousing is second in the number of annual worker deaths (only construction workers have a greater risk of dying in an on-the-job accident).
Recently, the Illinois Department of Labor released its December 2024 Final Report of the Warehouse Safety Task Force to Governor JB Pritzker (“Report”). The Report explains that warehouses are “…’large footprint’ buildings, which may be owned by one entity and operated by another; and have occupants who might be employees of the warehouse owner or operator, outside contractors, or temporary labor staffing agencies, or whom might just be in the warehouse incidentally.”
The Report continues by explaining how “…these occupants may have different employers and/or supervisors, workers may not receive the same safety training or know the facility’s emergency response protocols. Another challenge is that warehouse occupants have to travel a long distance to get to a designated refuge area. Some employers choose to, but are not required to, conduct emergency response drills.”
For more, see: Chicago Amazon Work Accidents: Warehouse and Delivery Dangers; and Local Amazon Warehouses Under Federal Investigation for Both Worker Dangers and Fraudulent Conduct.
Duty of Safety in Chicagoland Warehouse Depends Upon the Legal Relationship to the Worker Victim
Pick any day, and any time within a twenty-four-hour period, and there will be a hubbub of noisy activity at our main Chicago warehouses. And for everyone on that jobsite there are specific duties of care and safety defined by law to keep people safe.
However, what these legal duties are depends upon the circumstance. Dangers of serious or fatal injuries on an Illinois warehouse jobsite include:
1. Truck Drivers; Forklift Operators; Loading Dock Workers
All sorts of workers doing all sorts of tasks will be busy at work. Truck drivers will be moving their rigs in and out; trains and ships will be moving through; forklift drivers will be moving product; loading dock workers will be moving cargo on and off trailers, railcars, and shipping containers; etc.
Each of these individuals must work in a reasonable and prudent manner to keep people safe, and all are owed a duty of care by those who pay their wages or who have possession, custody, or control of aspects of their worksite.
See: Forklift Accidents: Serious and Deadly Industrial Truck Injuries on the Job.
2. Motor Vehicles
Moreover, all sorts of motor vehicles are busy in warehousing work, where they be leaking fuel or oil or brake fluid, as well as being operated with various flaws or defects that may cause harm. There are legal duties of safety here, as well.
Those who own, operate, lease, repair, maintain, provide, or use any of the warehouse vehicles have a legal responsibility to make sure they are safe each day before being operated in the warehouse.
For more, read: Chicago Amazon Work Accidents: Warehouse and Delivery Dangers.
3. Heavy Machinery, Equipment, and Tools
Heavy machinery and equipment as well as all sorts of hand and power tools, are a part of the daily life of a Chicagoland warehouse worker. All these items, no matter their size or if they are powered, must be in proper working order.
Duties of safety here are imposed not only on the owners and suppliers of this machinery, equipment, and tools but also on those who manufacture, sell, repair, or maintain them.
For more, see: Worker Injuries Involving Industrial Equipment, Machinery, or Tools.
4. Condition of Warehouse Site
Premises owners, landowners and tenants, likewise have legal duties to make sure the land and its improvements are safe for those on the job in the warehouse and its surrounding areas.
Things like proper lighting, safety from winter weather conditions, emergency protections, and more are legal requirements that must be met to keep people safe.
For more, see Housekeeping in Warehouses: Work Accident Dangers in Illinois and Indiana and Workplace Emergencies: Protecting Workers from Harm.
5. Hazardous Cargo or Goods
Finally, there are legal duties involving the protection of warehouse workers from any risks or hazards associated with the goods and cargo that move through or is stored on the worksite.
Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and others have legal duties of safety here that include but are not limited to making sure their products have proper warning labels and warning signs.
For more, see: Warning Labels and Warning Signs: Liability After an Accident and New Warning Label Requirements for Hazardous Chemicals at the Workplace.
Justice for Chicagoland Warehouse Workers Hurt or Killed on the Job
The future promises a continued growth in the number of warehouses, and warehousing jobs, here in Illinois and specifically, the Chicagoland area. Most people think of Amazon here, but many other companies are finding our region to be advantageous to their business endeavors. More and more of our friends and family members may be earning a living in warehousing in the upcoming years.
For these Chicago area warehouse workers, from truckers to loading dock workers or anyone working on the floor, it is vital they know the warnings from agencies, safety organizations, and worker victim advocates on how very dangerous these jobs are – and that there are a great many different laws in place designed to keep them safe on the job.
Sadly, statistics show that those with these legal duties of care are all too often choosing profits over people and disregarding or disrespecting the worker safety laws imposed upon them. People in Chicago are in danger of being hurt on the job, and warehouse workers are being injured or killed because of legal breaches in safety by employers and third parties.
When a worker is severely injured or killed in a Chicagoland warehouse accident, both state and federal law may provide avenues for justice to that worker victim and their loved ones which can include medical expenses, rehab costs, psychological treatment, lost earning capacity, long-term disability, loss of consortium and more. Not only their employer but other companies and individuals may have legal liability for these damages.
Laws exist to keep warehouse workers safe on the job. Too many companies are failing to obey them, and warehousing remains a very dangerous line of work. Please be careful out there!
