The Seattle-based e-commerce giant announced it has agreed to buy Cloostermans, which has worked with Amazon since 2019, to build technology that moves and stacks heavy palettes and groups items for packaging. The companies did not reveal the terms of the deal. (The Logic)

Talking point: Amazon hopes the acquisition, which will add 200 employees in Europe, will improve worker safety and stem packaging waste. The company has faced some shareholder pressure about its plastic packaging and warehouse conditions. A group of unions also criticized the firm this year for its rising injury rates, after analyzing U.S. regulatory filings and finding the serious injury rates were more than twice as high as in non-Amazon warehouses and made up nearly half of U.S. warehouse injuries last year. Unions are also pressing Amazon to improve conditions in other parts of its business, like delivery drivers. In its announcement of the Cloostermans deal, Amazon pointed to its recent work on ergonomics and robots to “build a better and safer workplace.”