Amazon shuts down Quebec operations after unionizing, swears it’s unrelated

Here are two separate pieces of information that you should definitely read as separate items without suggesting that they are related in any way: Last year, there were about 300 Amazon employees in a warehouse in Quebec. Formed a union. This week Amazon Announce It will close its facilities in the Canadian province, laying off more than 1,700 permanent employees in favor of contractor workers.

The official line from Amazon is that the decision to close its operations is entirely related to cost-cutting. For every a Statement he provided to CBCthe company reviewed its operations in Quebec and found that “returning to a third-party delivery model supported by local small businesses, similar to the one we had until 2020, will enable us to provide the same excellent service and achieve greater savings to our customers in the long term.” The closures are expected to take place over the next two months.

The union doesn’t see it the same way. In a statementThe union’s president, Caroline Senneville, said that the decision “does not make any sense, neither at the business level nor at the operational level.”

The timing certainly doesn’t make much sense if you just look at Amazon’s recent investments in the region. Company It opened its first fulfillment center In Quebec in 2020, then expanded rapidly with Five additional facilities Which opened in 2021. The company operates seven locations in total in Quebec, all of which were opened under the guise that Amazon needed more workers to speed up deliveries in the growing market.

But then came the union. Last spring, workers at an Amazon facility in Laval, Quebec union With the Confédération des Syndicats nationales (National Trade Union Confederation) in response to growing concerns among workers about their safety and compensation. CorpWatch, a watchdog group, found that the rate of disabling injuries for Amazon warehouse workers at one Canadian facility was 19.42 per 100 workers per year, nearly seven times the average rate 2.9 per 100 workers per year across all industries. In 2022 alone, 2022 was Amazon Canada commander to pay nearly $5 million in damages for more than 1,300 workplace injuries sustained at its facilities.

It was the union of the Laval facility Waiting for Amazon to make its first offer on the contractWhich they were expecting to receive this month. The workers were demanding a starting wage of $26 per hour, along with additional protections within the workplace.

This offer will never come. Instead, Amazon will hand its work to contractors, who routinely shoulder the burden Extremely long work days With delivery deadlines so tight they don’t have time to do it Stop using the toilet And suffer from Much higher rates of safety violations– All to save a few bucks.