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The Law Isn’t Enough To Bring Amazon To Heel
27/01/25
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Jan. 27, 2025
Unions need to innovate, collaborate and empower workers to combat further Amazon crackdowns like in Quebec.
Last Wednesday, Amazon announced that it will shutter its seven warehouses, fulfillment centres and sorting stations in Quebec, terminating nearly 2,000 jobs, 1,700 of which are permanent positions.
The company claims its decision to cease direct operations in Quebec is not in response to around 300 workers at a warehouse in Laval choosing to unionize in May 2024. The union representing these workers — Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) — disagrees, stating in a French-language press release that it had “no doubt that the closures announced today are part of an anti-union campaign against the CSN and Amazon employees.”
The union had been trying for months to secure a first collective agreement for its new members at Amazon. Workers were seeking to improve compensation and address health and safety issues for which Amazon is notorious. Félix Trudeau, a clerk at the Laval warehouse and president of the local union, for example, told The Globe and Mail that 160 out of roughly 250 workers in his warehouse reported workplace injuries, mostly related to repetitive strain.
The CSN union drive went public in early 2022, after workers reached out to the union. Though Amazon attempted an anti-union push back similar to those it has employed throughout the United States, the relatively better legal regime and a culture more favourable to unions made this less practicable in Quebec.
The bargaining unit was officially certified in May 2024 after a majority of workers signed union cards. Quebec, like British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the federal jurisdiction, has card-check unionization, making it easier for workers to form or join unions.
Bargaining for a first contract began in July 2024, even as Amazon continued to contest the union’s certification at Quebec’s Labour Tribunal. Remarkably, the company attempted to argue before the tribunal that card-check certification is unconstitutional. Predictably, in October, the Labour Tribunal rejected this ridiculous assertion and refused to revoke CSN’s certification.
This was the second time Amazon had lost a labour hearing related to the workers in Laval. The company was previously forced to pay the union $30,000 in penalties for subjecting workers to unwarranted anti-union messaging during the organizing drive.
Facing Amazon’s continued resistance in bargaining, as well as layoffs in January that the union interpreted as a form of retaliation, an arbitrated first-contract was beginning to look more likely. Quebec’s labour law regime allows unions facing an intransigent employer to request arbitration to impose a first collective agreement.
It seems that as the prospect of an arbitrated first contract approached, the notoriously anti-union company chose to pull the plug instead.
Caroline Senneville, president of CSN, called Amazon’s decision to shutter its facilities “outrageous.” Senneville told CTV News that the union had no idea the decision was coming.
In the union’s press release, she continued: “This is a slap in the face for all workers in Quebec [...] Since the beginning of our campaign three years ago, Amazon has done everything it can to prevent its employees from unionizing: fear campaigns, anti-union messages, contesting the Labour Code, disguised dismissals… And today, we learn that the multinational prefers to withdraw from Quebec rather than respect its obligation to agree on a collective agreement? This is totally unacceptable.”
Amazon opened its first warehouse in the province in 2020, later expanding its footprint to meet rising demand. Across Canada, the company employs more than 41,000 full- and part-time workers. The Laval facility was the only unionized warehouse in Canada at present, though there are ongoing campaigns elsewhere. A union drive led by Unifor in British Columbia is currently in limbo with the votes sealed. That union has accused Amazon of ramping up hiring during the campaign to make it more difficult for Unifor to reach majority support.
Though many mainstream media outlets are claiming Amazon is “closing” its Quebec facilities, this is not accurate. Instead, the company will shift back to a model that outsources work to third-party contractors.
Amazon delivery services are already operated through such a model in virtually every jurisdiction where the e-commerce giant does business. Now, it wants to do the same in warehousing and fulfillment. For example, Amazon could potentially engage contracted companies and workers to fulfill its order out of some of the very same buildings it now occupies itself.
The MapleAdam D.K. King
Amazon characterizes third-party contractors as “local businesses,” but this is a complete obfuscation. In reality, its so-called “service partners” are firms that usually contract exclusively with Amazon to fulfill its orders. Third-party contracting is simply a way for Amazon to evade its statutory obligations to workers. Moreover, Amazon dictates virtually every aspect of the contractors’ operations, including the amount of compensation allotted for workers. This had led some analysts to call for treating Amazon as a “joint employer” of contracted workers, which would make it easier for those employed under this model to unionize and bargain directly with Amazon.
Whether or not unions in Canada could force joint employer status on Amazon remains an open question, though labour will certainly need to contend with this issue if closures and a deepening of subcontracting is how Amazon chooses to respond to successful union certifications going forward.
What is clear is that through its attack on workers in Laval, Amazon is seeking to quash further organizing at its Canadian operations. By beating back the first successful union in Quebec, the online retail giant hopes to set a precedent that workers who are audacious and brave enough to challenge its dictatorial rule in the workplace will face consequences, including job loss.
Moreover, rather than bargain in good faith with CSN members, Amazon has instead chosen to pay what will be a considerable amount of termination pay to the thousands of workers, union and non-union, at the impacted facilities. Under Quebec law, when a company dismisses 300 or more workers they must provide each worker 16 weeks of notice or pay in lieu of notice.
In addition, if the union pursues a legal challenge of Amazon’s closures and a court determines the latter were a form of retaliation against the union, the company could be required to pay a hefty settlement to the workers, as was previously the case when Walmart closed a store in response to a union certification in Quebec.
In other words, Amazon is willing to absorb appreciable costs to avoid the precedent of bargaining with unionized workers.
Make no mistake, Amazon considered CSN’s successful union campaign enough of a threat to pull the plug on its capital investments in Quebec and potentially pay huge sums in severance pay and legal fees simply to bust the union. This is a company that wants unilateral control over its workers in every jurisdiction.
Fighting back is a must.
If it wasn’t clear enough already, this latest example from Quebec should drive the point home: organizing Amazon is an all-hands-on-deck situation. Relying on the law and the courts won’t do. Unions need to innovate, collaborate, invest the necessary resources and empower rank-and-file workers if labour is finally going to bring Amazon to heel.
[Top: Photo via Province of British Columbia on Flickr, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.]
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