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With Christmas mere days away and Canada Post just barely back to work, no one could blame Canadians for turning to Amazon to complete their Christmas shopping. That’s why news of a strike at Amazon plants could cause further stress.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” said Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien in a press release.
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However, Amazon is assuring Canadians that Santa (or at least Amazon deliveries) will not be affected. The Teamsters strike involves Amazon workers at several American cities such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco but will be barely felt even in the U.S., according to the Reuters News Agency.
“There is no impact to our operations in Canada. Nor has there been any impact to operations in the U.S.,” Amazon confirmed to the National Post.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in an emailed statement. “They don’t…What you’re seeing at these sites are almost entirely outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners.”
She says the strike targets workers employed by delivery service partners — third-party businesses that do deliveries for Amazon. They are independent contractors and Amazon denies those workers are part of its official workforce.
However, the Teamsters are not active in any Canadian facilities. The only unionized location in Canada is in Laval, Quebec, where the workers are represented by the Confédération des syndicats nationaux.
The company says most items ordered by Canadian customers are stocked its Canadian warehouses or shipped directly from other countries, minimizing the chance of delays due to U.S. labour actions.
“We appreciate all our team’s great work to serve their customers and communities, and thanks to them, we’re not seeing any impact to customers’ orders,” says Natel.
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