Amazon to close Quebec facilities, insists it’s not because of new union

Amazon announced on Wednesday it will shutter its facilities in Quebec in the coming weeks and cut more than 1,700 jobs.

A company spokesperson said Amazon will outsource deliveries to smaller contractors. The spokesperson insisted that the decision was tied to cost savings — not the recent unionization of about 300 employees at a Laval, Que., warehouse. 

“Following a recent review of our Quebec operations,” the 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.”

It was not immediately clear when Amazon would close its facilities, but the spokesperson told Radio-Canada it would happen in the “next two months.” 

Quebec is home to Amazon’s only unionized workforce in Canada. Workers in Laval unionized last year, saying they were dissatisfied with what they described as a hectic work pace, low wages and inadequate health and safety measures.

Union denounces decision

The CSN, the union federation that represents the workers, released a statement denouncing 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 said 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?”

At the Amazon facility in Laval where workers had unionized, Nedim Sab, a supervisor, said workers were crying. 

“What are we going to do now? We have to start over,” he said. “I was a driver. Now I am a supervisor. Now they’re going to erase everything for me.”

He blamed the union for the closure. He said Amazon had been very unhappy about the unionization efforts and he said he didn’t see the need for a union. His salary, he said, was over $23 per hour. 

“I don’t think this job needs to get unionized,” he said. “Amazon is really not happy with the union. I don’t know, it’s so sad.” 

Mazhad Shayegan, a dispatcher, said he and his colleagues had been told they were going to lose their jobs in two weeks. He said he would have to go on welfare. 

“Looking for a job is not good now. It’s not a good time,” he said.

At a recent demonstration, the Laval workers said they were demanding $26 per hour, a $6 pay increase. 

Amazon had said it was negotiating with the workers, but they had not yet reached a collective agreement.

The company opened its first facility in Quebec in 2020 in the borough of Lachine. It now has seven sites in Quebec, including sorting centres and warehouses. Most of them are in the Montreal area. One is in Coteau-du-Lac, about 60 kilometres west of the city.

In 2021, when Amazon announced five new facilities in Quebec, the company had said it was eager to expand its operations in the province, touting the need to respond to greater demand and speed up delivery times. 

On Wednesday morning, workers at the facility in Lachine expressed shock and disappointment after learning of the company’s decision.

“Nobody saw this coming,” one worker said. “No idea what I’m going to do. I need time to digest this.”

The spokesperson said the scaling back of its Quebec operations would result in the closure of all seven of its sites. 

Employees will be given as much as 14 weeks’ salary in severance, the company said.

Amazon became a $2 trillion company last year. It has facilities and thousands of employees across Canada. 

Quebec labour laws possibly to blame, prof says

Mélanie Laroche, a professor at the Université de Montréal who specializes in the relationships between employers and unions, said Amazon’s decision was not a surprise. 

She said Quebec’s labour laws are more restrictive on businesses than elsewhere. 

Amazon currently recognizes one other union, in Staten Island, N.Y. But it has not yet reached a collective agreement with them.

In Quebec, by contrast, labour law would have obliged the two parties to negotiate a collective agreement and could have imposed arbitration on them. 

“Amazon was probably confronted with that imminent arbitration demand for a first collective agreement and wouldn’t have had a choice but to conclude a collective agreement,” she said.

“They’re deciding to close facilities in a province where, perhaps the labour laws are much more restrictive for management.”

Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet told reporters the government will provide support to the workers who lost their jobs to help them re-enter the labour market as quickly as possible. He said there are still labour shortages in some sectors and expressed optimism that the workers would be able to find new jobs. 

He declined to comment on the reasons Amazon gave for closing its Quebec facilities, but said the law dictates that Amazon issue the government a formal notice of collective dismissal, which it has not yet done. 

Intelcom, a Montreal-based courier and package delivery company that Amazon subcontracts for deliveries, released a statement saying only that it would continue working with Amazon to “respond to their delivery needs in Quebec.”

Amazon’s shares were up on Wednesday afternoon.