Amazon closes its operations in Quebec, lays off 1,700 workers

Amazon said on Wednesday it was closing all of its warehouse and logistics operations in the Canadian province of Quebec, where unions have sought to gain a foothold at one of its facilities, and laying off 1,700 workers.
The closures represent a U-turn from Amazon’s recent investments in the province. The company opened three delivery stations in 2021, and one last year. It also had a small fulfillment center and two warehouses in Quebec that sorted packages.
All told, the investments took up about 2 million square feet, according to an estimate by Mark Wolfrat, a warehousing industry consultant based in Montreal. Have long researched Amazon’s logistics network,
Amazon said it was closing the seven facilities “in order to provide the same great service and even greater savings to our longtime customers,” according to a statement from company spokeswoman Barbara Egreite.
Amazon will still serve customers in Quebec by returning to its operating model before 2020, when facilities in neighboring provinces prepared packages that were then carried by third-party delivery companies in Quebec.
Amazon’s first union in Canada involved about 230 warehouse workers in Laval, north of Montreal, after unionizing in May. But the company challenged the unionization effort before a provincial labor tribunal. It argued that union certification should be revoked because workers signed union cards to indicate their support rather than voting by secret ballot. The tribunal ruled against Amazon in October, just ahead of the peak holiday shopping season.
Amazon said that litigation on the matter was continuing.
With Quebec closed, “They made it clear that we don’t want this to spread,” Mr. Wolfrat said, referring to the union’s effort. The company has more than 46,000 corporate and operations employees in Canada.
Federal Innovation Minister, François-Philippe Champagne said Post On X that he had expressed his frustration to the head of Amazon in Canada.
“This is not how business is done in Canada,” he said.
The union representing the workers, the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux, said it was informed of the closure via an email from one of Amazon’s lawyers this morning. Caroline Senneville, the federation’s president, said in a statement that the company had been blocking its union drive since it began three years ago, through actions that included what she called “disguised dismissals”.
“This is a slap in the face to all workers in Quebec,” she said.
Amazon denied claims from the union that the dismissals were unfair.
The Montreal metropolitan area has approximately 4.5 million residents, making it larger than the Greater Seattle area. Pulling operations out of a major population center is the opposite of what Amazon has touted in recent years as a central driver of success within its operations: putting more products closer to customers, enabling faster delivery. For. This, Amazon has repeatedly said, reduces the cost of delivery, and causes customers to order more often.
Amazon hasn’t abandoned direct operations from a major population center in North America in years, although more than a dozen years ago it routinely played hardball with states that tried to collect taxes for online sales.
Walmart and other retailers have had difficulty in the past setting up a logistics In Quebec, where two out of every five workers are unionized. This is the highest rate among Canadian provinces, according to government dataAnd nearly four times as many in the United States.
Quebec Premier François Legault said Amazon’s move was “a private decision by a private company.”
“I can understand that it must be difficult for the 1,700 families involved,” Mr. Legault told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday, on the need for Quebecers to mobilize and buy local products in response to President Trump’s tariffs. Said focusing most of his comments. Threat.
The province’s Labor Minister Jean Boulet said workers affected by the warehouse shutdown will receive assistance from the government to find new jobs.
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