An Amazon warehouse and a distribution center in an industrial park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Thursday, September 1, 2022.
Graham Hughes | Bloomberg | Getty images
Amazon should face a legal action by a Canadian union after the company’s decision to complete its warehouse operations in Quebec.
The Federation of National Unions, known as CSN, said Tuesday He plans to request a court to order Amazon to reopen seven warehouses and restore the 1,700 jobs lost following the closures.
Amazon announced at the end of last month that it would eliminate seven sites in Quebec “following a recent examination” of its operations in the province, which is the only place in Canada with employees of Amazon unionized. The company said it would be a third-party delivery model, recruiting subcontractors to manage deliveries.
The CSN estimated that around 4,500 jobs were cut by Amazon and its subcontractors as a result of the closures.
“Amazon thinks that it can simply transfer the work to other corporate entities and outsource certain storage and delivery operations,” said CSN president Caroline Senneville in a statement. “What he calls the” new business model “is only an attempt to bypass his obligations under the Labor Code. The court should recognize that this regime violates the law and can then order the reintegration of workers Amazon. “
Amazon spokesperson Barbara agrees, said that returning to a third-party delivery model, which he used in Quebec before 2020, will allow the company to “provide the same excellent service and even more savings to our long -term customers “.
“By making this decision, we have conformed and will continue to comply with all the applicable federal and provincial laws,” said in a statement.
The CSN represents around 240 Amazon workers in a warehouse near the suburbs of Montreal of Laval. Workers on the site unionized last Maybecoming the first Amazon warehouse in Canada to do so.
After the closures, the Minister of Canada of Industry Françoise-Philippe Champagne written Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, expressing his “disappointment” about the decision, saying that “raises questions about your commitment to Canada and your Canadian partners”.
Champagne said the government is considering examining its current agreements with Amazon.
Amazon said the vice-president of his Canada company spoke with Champagne after the company announced the closures.
The company also faces a growing labor pressure in American workers from an Amazon warehouse in North Carolina should vote next week on the opportunity to join a union, while WHOLE workers Foods in Philadelphia voted last month to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
Amazon employees in an installation by Staten Island, New York, in 2022, trained the first union of the company in an American warehouse, although they have not yet obtained a contract. The group voted to join Teamsters last June.
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