Amazon Closes Quebec Operations After Merger, Vows No Deal

Here are two unrelated facts that you absolutely must read as independent statements: Last year, nearly 300 Amazon workers in a warehouse in Quebec created unity. Amazon this week announced it will close its facilities in the Canadian province, laying off more than 1,700 permanent employees in favor of contract labor.

Amazon’s official line is that its decision to shut down is entirely cost-cutting. per head This was announced to the CBCthe company reviewed its Quebec operations and found that “returning to a third-party delivery model similar to the one we have by 2020, supported by local small businesses, will allow us to offer the same great service and deliver even more 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. a statementThe union’s president, Caroline Senneville, said the decision “makes no business sense or operational sense.”

The timing doesn’t make much sense given Amazon’s recent investments in the region. Company opened the first fulfillment center in Quebec in 2020 and expanded rapidly thereafter five additional objects It was opened in 2021. The company operates a total of seven sites 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 unity. Last spring, workers at an Amazon facility in Laval, Quebec unionized with the Confédération des syndicats nationalaux (National Confederation of Trade Unions) in response to growing concerns about safety and compensation among workers. CorpWatch, a watchdog group, found a rate of disabling injuries for Amazon warehouse workers at a Canadian facility. 19.42 About seven times the average rate per 100 workers per year 2.9 per 100 workers per year in all industries. Only in 2022, 2022 was Amazon Canada ordered to pay approximately $5 million in compensation for more than 1,300 workplace injuries at its facilities.

Laval was the founding union It is waiting for Amazon to make its first offer on the dealthey expected to receive it this month. The workers were demanding a starting wage of $26 an hour, along with additional on-the-job protection.

This offer will never come. Instead, Amazon will outsource its work to contractors who are regularly hired extremely long working days delivery times are so tight that they often don’t have time for it stop using the toilet and suffers significantly higher rates of security breaches– all to save a few bucks.