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Padilla’s injury is one of hundreds employees sustained in recent years at the warehouse complex, the supermarket chain’s largest. The distribution center, which employs about 1,700 people, reported to federal regulators that most incidents were serious enough to require days away from work.

In fact, workers at Safeway’s facility faced the nation’s top injury rate in 2022 and the third highest in 2023 when compared to other large general warehousing and storage establishments with more than 1,000 employees, a KQED analysis of the most recently available federal data found...

However, Safeway’s facility, which supplies dozens of stores in the Bay Area, stood out with an injury rate that was five times the nationwide industry’s average of 5.7 injuries per 100 workers in 2022. The following year, it was three times higher.

Earlier this month, California workplace safety regulators fined Safeway nearly $200,000 for violations at the distribution center...

“Every time we try to talk to [Safeway] about safety, they just brush us off. We keep telling them that we got massive injuries here at the facility,” he added. “It’s like they don’t care.”

Safeway declined an interview with KQED. In a statement, a spokesperson said the company is committed to ensuring safety across all its operations.

“We are taking this matter very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “While we disagree with the investigation’s outcome, we are collaborating with OSHA to address their concerns, including conducting a comprehensive review at our Tracy Distribution Center.”

The spokesperson declined to comment on the facility’s injury rate.

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