‘Victorian Disease’ Hits Amazon Warehouse, Union Warns Site Could Spark ‘Mass Outbreak’
A tuberculosis outbreak at an Amazon facility in Coventry has union leaders demanding the company shut down operations immediately. The GMB union wants Amazon to close the warehouse and pay all 2,000 employees full wages while proper health protections are put in place. In September 2025, Amazon said 10 workers tested positive for non-contagious TB. The company kept the facility running despite the confirmed cases and said it would start preventive health screenings for staff.
The warehouse handles package sorting with about 2,000 workers, 700 of whom are GMB union members. NHS staff have visited the site to conduct blood tests as part of ongoing health checks. Amazon says deliveries haven’t been affected because the facility only sorts packages rather than shipping them directly. The company said it quickly followed NHS and UK Health Security Agency guidance and informed all workers who might have been exposed to the disease.
The illness behind the outbreak, tuberculosis, carries the historical nickname ‘Victorian Disease’ because of its devastating impact during Britain’s industrial revolution. Caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, this infection mainly affects the lungs but can spread to the lymph nodes, bones, and nervous system. It spreads through the air when infected people cough, sneeze, or talk, releasing tiny droplets containing the bacteria. In the late 1830s, this disease killed between a quarter and a third of England’s tradesmen and laborers, earning the grim nickname White Death.
The Union Warns of Mass Outbreak Risk on a Scale Not Seen for Decades
Amanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organizer, said the company needs to take urgent action to prevent the disease from spreading further. “Amazon is putting all workers, site visitors, and the local and wider communities at risk of exposure to a serious infectious disease,” Gearing stated. She warned the Coventry location could become “the engine room of a mass TB outbreak on a scale not seen for decades,” and called for a temporary shutdown to stop the health threat from growing.
Coventry MP Taiwo Owatemi said she’s closely monitoring the situation at the warehouse and stressed Amazon’s responsibility to protect workers. “Amazon has a clear responsibility to look after its employees and to ensure that the working environment is safe, transparent, and responsive to legitimate health concerns,” Owatemi said. She supports the union’s call for workers to be sent home on full pay while thorough health screenings are completed and proper infection control measures are put in place.
Zarah Sultana, Your Party MP for Coventry South, condemned Amazon’s decision to keep the warehouse open. “This is a corporation that clearly thinks it’s above the law, forcing people into conditions that belong in the Victorian era,” Sultana stated. Both MPs have publicly criticized Amazon’s handling of the outbreak. The company says its response follows official health agency guidance, while labor leaders push for stronger action beyond the current screening program.
Health Officials Say Risk Remains Low Despite Union Concerns
Dr. Roger Gajraj of UKHSA West Midlands said the infected workers are recovering successfully. “The small number of individuals affected by tuberculosis are responding well to treatment and are no longer infectious, so pose no onward risk,” Gajraj stated. UK Health Security Agency experts assess the overall risk from the Amazon Coventry site as low. Amazon confirmed an expanded screening program with the NHS is running this month as a precaution, and no additional cases have been identified to date.
The disease got its Victorian nickname because of how badly it spread during that era in Britain. Poor sanitation, overcrowded cities, malnutrition, and terrible housing conditions in 19th-century Britain created perfect conditions for TB to spread. The illness was called ‘consumption’ because of the dramatic weight loss it caused, and it killed millions during the rapid growth of industrial cities and widespread poverty. After scientists identified the bacterium in 1882, health officials launched campaigns, including efforts to stop people from spitting in public.
According to the NHS, tuberculosis symptoms develop gradually and include a persistent cough lasting more than three weeks that usually brings up phlegm, which may be bloody. Other symptoms include feeling tired or exhausted, a high temperature and night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, swelling of the lymph nodes, blood in urine, back pain, headaches, confusion, and a hoarse voice. TB is a potentially serious condition, but it can be cured if treated with the right antibiotics.
Protection Exists, but Access Remains Limited for Most Workers
A preventive vaccine called the BCG vaccine protects against tuberculosis and is currently the most widely used vaccine in the world. British health policy no longer offers this vaccine to secondary school students and now focuses on young children at higher risk. The NHS recommends it for babies living in areas where TB is more common, children living with someone who has TB, and workers at risk through their jobs, such as healthcare professionals who treat TB patients.
Amazon said it’s running an expanded screening program with NHS staff as a precaution. “In line with best practice safety procedures, we immediately followed guidance from the NHS and UKHSA and made all potentially affected employees aware of the situation,” a company spokesperson said. “We will continue to follow guidance from the experts in the NHS, and would respectfully remind public organizations of the need for responsible communications where matters of public wellbeing are concerned.”
The Sun reported that TB poses a low risk of community transmission outside high-exposure settings such as the Amazon warehouse. The sorting facility continues normal operations during the health monitoring. The GMB union has called for immediate site closure and full pay for workers until infection control measures are in place, while Amazon maintains it is following NHS and UKHSA guidance. Amazon said an expanded screening program with the NHS was running in January, with no additional cases identified to date.