AFP
Amazon said it will close seven of its warehouses in Quebec as a Canadian union that unionized a facility in a suburb of Montreal accused the online retail giant of trying to cut off organizing efforts in the province, according to a report.
The closings will result in about 1,700 full-time workers being laid off, the Associated Press reported.
Amazon said it will employ third-party companies to deliver packages.
“This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we’re offering impacted employees a package that includes up to 14 weeks’ pay after facilities close and transitional benefits, like job placement resources,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said in a statement, the AP reported.
She said the decision was made after a “recent review” of the company’s operations in the province, the AP said.
In May, roughly 240 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, unionized, becoming the first of the online retailer’s Canadian warehouses to do so.
Amazon challenged the unionization but it was rejected by a provincial labor tribunal.
The president of the union that organized the warehouse in Laval said she has “no doubt” that the closings were part of an anti-union campaign.
“Since the beginning of our campaign three years ago, Amazon has done everything to prevent unionization of its employees: fear campaign, anti-union messages, challenging the Labor Code, disguised layoffs,” CSN President Caroline Senneville said.
