1,700 jobs to be lost in Quebec, as Amazon says it will close seven sites in the only province in Canada to have unionised staff
Amazon has sent to a signal to its workforce in North America, after the e-commerce giant said it will close seven locations in Canada.
Amazon said it will close all seven of its warehouses in the Canadian province of Quebec, with the loss of 1,700 full-time jobs.
The warehouse closures happen to be the only location in Canada with unionised Amazon employees. But Amazon insisted the decision was based on cost-savings – not the recent unionisation of 300 employees at the Laval Que warehouse, CBC News reported.
Quebec closures
Staff at Laval had reportedly unionised in 2024, amid complaints they were dissatisfied with what they described as a hectic work pace, low wages and inadequate health and safety measures.
“Following a recent review of our Quebec operations,” the Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement, “we 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 offer the same excellent service and deliver even greater savings to our customers in the long term.”
CBC News noted that it was not immediately clear when Amazon would close its facilities, but the spokesperson reportedly told Radio-Canada it would happen in the “next two months.”
Meanwhile the trade union called CSN, that represents the workers, reportedly denounced the closures.
The union said it had learned of Amazon’s decision to close its Quebec facilities early Wednesday when it received an email from an Amazon lawyer.
“This decision makes no sense whatsoever,” CSN president Caroline Senneville was quoted as saying in a statement. “Neither from a business point of view, nor from an operational point of view. Amazon, one of the most integrated companies between the click of a mouse and home delivery, would entrust all its warehousing and distribution operations throughout Quebec to a third party?”
Unionisation efforts
Amazon’s decision to shutter its Quebec facilities and axe thousands of jobs will no doubt be closed watched south of the border.
Earlier this month it was reported that Amazon warehouse workers at a site in North Carolina will vote next month on whether to join a union. The location is said to be a facility in Garner, North Carolina.
That came after Amazon delivery drivers and warehouse workers in seven cities across US staged a two day strike just before Christmas 2024, after the e-commerce giant failed to negotiate.
It is fair to say that Amazon is not overly enthusiastic about trade unions, and the e-commerce giant has still not formally recognised its first-ever facility that voted to unionise in Staten Island back in 2022.
The company has filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board and in September 2024 filed a federal lawsuit challenging the NLRB’s constitutionality.