The battle lines were traced in an increasing quarrel between Amazon And the workers of Quebec as a union is preparing to announce a remote trial to the closings of installations across the company’s province.
On January 22, the American electronic commerce giant said that he would close his seven facilities in Quebec in the coming months, linking around 2,000 permanent and temporary workers – a number that the Ministry of Labor has since confirmed will actually exceed In fact exceed 4,500 after including service partners.
Caroline Senneville, president of the Confederation of National Unions (CSN), said that she would present her legal dispute on Tuesday.
“Our legal service has been working very hard and has been for a few days, and we will be able to announce on the reasons for the company which violated the labor code and the judicial measures that we will take,” she said.
Senneville said it could include a struggle for workers’ compensation in addition to their package with up to 14 weeks of salary.
Amazon spokesperson Barbara agrees, said the decision to close all Quebec facilities “was not made lightly” and was a way to provide “even more savings to our long customers term”.
Senneville said that major companies have a history in Quebec of closure when the unions will perform, citing the departure of a Walmart store in Jonquière in 2005.
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“They were found guilty (trying to destroy or weaken a union),” she said. “The closure of the store because a union has entered is illegal.”
AGRAD has always denied that closings are linked to the recent unionization push in the province after one of the company’s warehouses in Laval in Quebec managed to unionize in May 2024, becoming the first Canadian warehouse of the company to do so.
“Of course, Amazon will deny it until the end,” said Senneville.
However, although the CSN is preparing to contest the multinational company before the court, DT Cochrane, principal economist at the Canadian Labor Congress, said that the imbalance in a giant like Amazon and Unions is so great that all that the Combat that a union puts them against them is too insignificant to affect any change.
“The company has incredible quantities of resources to devote to this legal battle that unions simply do not have, especially when you think of workers at the center of these battles,” said Cochrane.
“This is dragging over the years and years, these workers will have passed to other jobs by necessity, and you have therefore lost the same group of people who are most immediately injured by what companies do like this. »»
Large companies know that this imbalance exists and are more than happy to exploit it, added Cochrane. This is part of the cost they want workers and unions to include in their calculations to know if they continue this type of legal action.
“Even if they continue until the end and the union wins a favorable decision, what will be the ultimate cost for Amazon?” Probably almost nothing compared to what they consider the cost of allowing workers to get away with this type of organization, “said Cochrane.
Amazon said that he respects his employees’ decision to join a union.
“Our employees have a choice. They still have. We favor opportunities so that each person is respected and appreciated as an individual, and make his voice heard by working directly with our team, “said the company.
“The fact is that Amazon already offers what many unions are asking for: competitive remuneration, health benefits on the first day and career growth opportunities.”
The union claims that this is not true. Senneville said there was a remuneration gap of $ 8 on the hourly wages between Amazon warehouse workers and other provincial warehouse workers.
And with regard to health and safety, it claims that the company even discourages workers to go to the province’s health remuneration council.
The CSN said that the warehouse that had managed to unionize in Laval had 160 workers out of 200 injured injuries in a year.
Senneville said workers are invited to take Tylenol, a few days off and are discouraged from submitting an injury to work.
“And these workers are mainly immigrants. They therefore do not know our laws. They do not know that they have rights even if they are not unionized. The company ensures that they do not exercise their rights even as regular workers, “said Senneville.
The CSN is expected to announce its legal challenge Tuesday morning.
