Just how far will Amazon go to throttle unions?
The corporate behemoth, valued at a staggering $2.47 trillion, is notorious for its union-busting. Amazon workers at the massive JFK8 warehouse voted for their union in 2022, but nearly three years later they have yet to get to the bargaining table, as the company’s army of lawyers has repeatedly thwarted government orders to bargain. Amazon routinely harasses and fires union activists, a warning to other workers who might be thinking about stepping forward. And when faced with an obligation to bargain with groups of its contracted delivery drivers, Amazon has simply severed their contracts, firing them en masse.
Last week, however, saw Amazon hit a new low in its union-busting: to avoid having to negotiate a union contract at one warehouse in Quebec, the company shut down its operations throughout the entire province.
Workers at Amazon’s DXT4 warehouse in suburban Montreal won union certification last spring. Under Quebec’s provincial laws, this victory obligated the company to bargain a contract with them. And unlike in the United States, where employers can and often do drag out negotiations for years, Quebec law mandates first contract arbitration for newly organized unions. This meant that, like it or not, Amazon was compelled to reach an agreement with its workers.
Faced with this prospect and with incipient organizing underway at other Quebec worksites, the company announced it was shuttering its entire Quebec operation — seven warehouses — and laying off two thousand workers. “Following a recent review of our Quebec operations, we found that returning to a third-party delivery model supported by local small businesses . . . will enable us to offer the same excellent service…
Auteur: Jonathan Rosenblum
