Amazon Canada says its decision to close all seven of its warehouses in Quebec will have no immediate impact on its operations in the National Capital Region. The e-commerce giant announced Wednesday it was shuttering its Quebec facilities in a move that will scuttle 1,700 permanent jobs and 250 temporary ones. In an email to […]
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Amazon Canada says its decision to close all seven of its warehouses in Quebec will have no immediate impact on its operations in the National Capital Region.
The e-commerce giant announced Wednesday it was shuttering its Quebec facilities in a move that will scuttle 1,700 permanent jobs and 250 temporary ones.
In an email to OBJ, an Amazon spokesperson said the company is “always looking at our business to see if there are things we can do better,” adding its decision affects only its Quebec operations.
Amazon currently runs four facilities in the Ottawa region. They include two fulfilment centres – a one-million-square-foot building on Boundary Road and a five-storey, 2.8-million-square-foot warehouse on Citigate Drive in Barrhaven – where orders are picked, packed and shipped to Amazon customers.
The company also operates two smaller delivery stations, one on Legacy Road and a new 250,000-square-foot facility on Sheffield Road that opened in October and manages more than 30,000 deliveries a day.
Amazon Canada says it will shut down the Quebec warehouses and lay off staff over the next two months.
The e-commerce giant positioned the move as a way to provide “even more savings to our customers over the long run” and dismissed concerns that it was linked to a recent unionization push in the province.
"This is about offering the best service we can to customers in a way that’s efficient and cost effective," Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said in email to The Canadian Press on Wednesday, when asked to comment on whether the closures were an attempt at union busting.
The closure of the Quebec facilities will mean Amazon will revert to a business model it used in the province up until 2020, which employed local, third-party companies for package deliveries.
About 240 Amazon workers at the company's DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Que., a Montreal suburb, managed to unionize in May, becoming the first of the tech company's Canadian warehouses to unionize.
The process was hard fought, with Amazon challenging the workers' accreditation with the Confederation of National Trade Unions, which accused the company of "flooding the workplace with scaremongering messages.”
Amazon has previously responded to accusations it's anti-union by saying it doesn’t think unions are the best option for its employees but that they have the right to join one.
The company lost its challenge at the province's labour tribunal in October.
Caroline Senneville, president of the union involved with the organizing in Laval, said she has "no doubt" that Wednesday's closures, which she called "a slap in the face for all Quebec workers," are part of an anti-union campaign.
“As a worker in Quebec or in Canada, you should never be afraid to stand up for your rights, to exercise your rights given by our Charter of Rights. That’s why what Amazon is doing is unacceptable,” she said in an interview.
The union’s legal team is considering bringing the case before the provincial labour board, Senneville said.
She also disputed the number of employees facing layoffs, saying the figure sits well above 2,000.
The company has also faced anti-union allegations at a warehouse in the Montreal borough of Lachine, when the province’s labour tribunal ordered Amazon last year to cease interfering in union affairs and pay the union $30,000. The tribunal ruled Amazon communicated anti-union messages to workers, though it rejected a claim that the company had threatened and intimidated employees.
Agrait previously said Amazon strongly disagrees with "the limited finding that our factual communications with employees about the process were somehow improper," and said the company is challenging that part of the decision.
The closure news on Wednesday followed "a recent review of our Quebec operations," Agrait said.
"This decision wasn’t made lightly," she added.
The closing sites span Lachine, Longueuil, Coteau-du-Lac and Laval, and include one fulfilment centre, two sorting centres, three delivery stations and a facility Amazon dubs AMXL because it aids in the shipment of large goods like TVs or furniture.
Laid-off staff will receive a package with up to 14 weeks’ pay after the facilities close and transitional benefits such as job placement resources.
The closure of the Quebec facilities after the Laval unionization puts attention on an Amazon warehouse in Delta, B.C.
Unifor applied to certify the warehouse for unionization last year, but the results of that vote are sealed due to an unfair labour practices complaint the union filed, which alleges Amazon ramped up hiring to try to dilute union support.
Amazon has denied the allegations and Agrait has said the decision to call a vote at the Delta warehouse "undermines the rights of the majority of our employees in Vancouver who chose not to sign (union) cards."
Amazon's latest Canadian investment report says the company has 34 delivery stations, 23 fulfilment centres, six sorting centres and six AMXL facilities, along with three corporate offices and two tech hubs, in the country.
– With additional reporting from The Canadian Press
