2 Democratic congresswomen say the police were called after they showed up at an Amazon warehouse to check on workers' safety

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2 Democratic congresswomen say the police were called after they showed up at an Amazon warehouse to check on workers' safety
The inside of an Amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey on December 2, 2019.REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
  • Rep. Rashida Tlaib said in a tweet Friday that Amazon called the police on her and Rep. Debbie Dingell after they showed up at a Michigan warehouse to check on workers' safety.
  • The Democratic lawmakers, both from Michigan, had come at the request of workers and the company itself, and were waiting for more than an hour, Tlaib said.
  • Tlaib said they were eventually let in and both said they would share more soon.
  • Tlaib and Dingell have previously raised concerns about worker safety and called for a federal investigation into Amazon's warehouse safety practices.
  • "There was an unfortunate misunderstanding when one of our night shift security guards was not expecting external visitors to be filming onsite and was not aware of the identity of those filming at the entryway of the facility — the situation was resolved and we toured the Congresswomen through the site," a spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib claimed in a tweet Friday that the police were called about her and fellow Michigan congresswomen Rep. Debbie Dingell after they arrived at an Amazon warehouse in Romulus, Michigan, for a safety inspection.

"@DebDingell and I waited for 1.5 hours at @Amazon's Romulus facility to check on worker safety at the request of workers and the company itself. They let us in, but not before calling the police on us," Tlaib tweeted.

"They told us it was a misunderstanding, but we were completely taken aback. We will share more on what we saw soon. We remained deeply concerned about worker safety in @Amazon facilities," Tlaib said in a subsequent tweet.

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Dingell also weighed in, tweeting: "Worker safety is important and matters. Have a lot of thoughts from tonight's visit with @RashidaTlaib that will share when I've fully considered them."

Rep. Tlaib's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

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"There was an unfortunate misunderstanding when one of our night shift security guards was not expecting external visitors to be filming onsite and was not aware of the identity of those filming at the entryway of the facility — the situation was resolved and we toured the Congresswomen through the site," a spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider.

Tlaib and Dingell have previously sought to call attention to working conditions during the pandemic. In May, they called for federal officials to investigate Amazon's facilities across the country after complaints of warehouse conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.

This story is developing and will be updated as more information is available.

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