The union representing workers at what was Canada’s only unionized Amazon warehouse has revealed that the online retail giant has started shutting down its seven facilities in Quebec, rendering thousands of employees jobless.
Felix Trudeau, union president for the Laval, Que., Amazon warehouse that was unionized in May 2024 said he has confirmed that three warehouses in the Montreal area, including his own, shut down recently.
Trudeau said some workers came to work recently to their late shifts only to find out the warehouses closed and added that he heard that a fourth warehouse, located in Montreal, closed recently despite being scheduled to shutter in March.
Meanwhile, Amazon said in a statement that the three facilities closed as planned and the fourth location closed earlier than prescribed without specifying when.
Amazon is cutting around 2,000 jobs, but the number of total layoffs increases to about 4,500 when workers employed by subcontractors are included, according to Quebec labour group Confederation des syndicats nationaux.
Trudeau, who represents around 260 Amazon workers, accused the company of closing its warehouses in the province to punish employees at his warehouse for unionizing in May 2024. He called for a boycott till Amazon reopens its facilities or agrees to pay all its laid-off employees one year’s salary with benefits.
During a recent interview, he said: “We want there to be consequences for Amazon’s anti-union, anti-Quebec actions. We want the government at the different levels of government — municipal, provincial and federal — not only to stop buying from Amazon but to stop Amazon’s behaviour by cutting their contracts with Amazon and all of its affiliates.”
Mayor of Montreal, Valerie Plante, announced on X that the City of Montreal would stop ordering on Amazon “until further notice.”
Previous, Amazon has previously dismissed the suggestion that the closures are connected to a unionization push in the province and they are aimed at delivering efficient and cost-effective services to customers. The shutdown of the Quebec facilities means Amazon will revert to a business model it used in the province up until 2020, which employed local, third-party companies for package deliveries.
Protesters temporarily occupied an office belonging to Intelcom, a courier and package delivery company, in Montreal’s Anjou borough. Benoit Dumais, one of the protesters, said demonstrators wanted to send a message as Intelcom will become a major subcontractor for Amazon in the province after shutting down its own warehouses.
He said: “We were there to denounce Amazon but also expose that Intelcom is going to be the subcontractors and their working conditions are also very poor, so we’re still in the same logic of very cheap labour-intensive work.’
While responding to the accusations, Intelcom said it “has always been committed to providing a flexible work environment and growth opportunities for all its employees.”
The spokesperson of Montreal police, Jean-Pierre Brabant, said 20 to 30 demonstrators protested and there were no arrests. He added that the group left the offices to protest in front of the building shortly after police arrived.
