Amazon closing Quebec warehouses, laying off 1,700 employees

“Team morale is at zero and no one feels like working,” said an Amazon delivery driver after learning he would be laid off this morning. Amazon is closing seven warehouses in Quebec, close to 2,000 employees will lose their jobs. Erin Seize reports.

Amazon is moving to a third-party delivery and in turn closing its seven warehouses in Quebec — with 1,700 regular employees set to be laid off between now and March.

Amazon has warehouses in Laval, Lachine, Longueuil, and Côteaux-du-Lac — one fulfilment centre, two sorting centres, three delivery stations and a facility that ships large goods like TVs or furniture.

The closure of the sites will be a rolling process and is expected to take place over the course of the next two months — not all at once.

“Following a recent review of our Quebec operations, we’ve seen that returning to a third-party delivery model supported by local small businesses, similar to what we had until 2020, will allow us to provide the same great service and even more savings to our customers over the long run,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said.

“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.”

Lachine Amazon warehouse on January 22, 2025. (Matt Tornabene, CityNews)

In addition to the 1,700 regular employees being laid off, another 250 temporary seasonal employees, whose contracts already had specified end dates, are being impacted. Thousands of independent contractors who deliver to customers’ homes are also affected.

CityNews spoke to workers on Wednesday who asked to remain anonymous.

One delivery driver and dispatcher at Amazon, who has been there for two years, says his team of roughly 100 people was given notice Wednesday morning.

“We’re all depressed,” they said. “The morale is at zero and no one feels like working.

“Right now we aren’t delivering anything, we’re just running an errand.”

Legault, Quebec ministers respond

Quebec Premier François Legault said he was saddened that 1,700 Quebec families were impacted by the decision, but that Amazon is a private company that can make those calls.

“I’m not managing Amazon. It’s a private decision by a private company,” Legault told reporters.

“We will of course… see everything we can do to help them find another employer. I will talk later about the construction sector, which is currently looking for a lot of employees. Well, we have programs that exist, but we will do everything to replace them. But the fact remains that Amazon is a private company, it is a business decision of a private company. I cannot start managing a private company.”

Echoing the premier, Quebec’s employment minister told CityNews in a statement the government will offer help to the laid-off workers.

“My heart goes out to the affected employees,” Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain wrote. “We will set up a redeployment assistance committee. We will be there for the workers!”

Quebec’s labour minister said he would not comment “on the merits” of Amazon’s decision. But Minister Jean Boulet told CityNews: “As soon as we receive the notice of collective layoffs, we will put the mechanisms in place, that is to say a reclassification assistance committee to support people and ensure that they can reintegrate the job market.”

Amazon truck outside the Lachine Amazon warehouse on January 22, 2025. (Matt Tornabene, CityNews)

Federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne says he spoke to the head of Amazon Canada.

“I expressed our dismay and frustration after learning in the news that they intend to let go of 1,700 employees and close all seven of their warehouses in Québec,” Champagne wrote in a post on X.

“This is not the way business is done in Canada.”

Laval warehouse workers were unionized

A union certification was recently obtained by employees at Amazon’s Laval DXT4 warehouse, becoming the first of the tech company’s Canadian warehouses to unionize.

The process was hard fought with Amazon challenging the workers’ accreditation with the Confederation of National Trade Unions, which accused the company of “flooding the workplace with scaremongering messages.”

Amazon has previously responded to accusations that it’s anti-union by saying it doesn’t think unions are the best option for its employees but they have the right to join a union.

The company lost its challenge at the province’s labour tribunal in October.

When asked Wednesday if the unionization had anything to do with the closures, the company responded by saying the closures are about providing better service to customers.

‘A slap in the face’

But the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) isn’t buying it, and feels there must be a connection.

“I’m scandalized, really,” said CSN president Caroline Senneville. “Because what Amazon is saying is that Quebec is the only province where there is a union in Canada, Quebec is the only province where we’re trying very hard to negotiate a working contract, and it says, ‘well, we don’t want to deal with unions.’ And they’ve said that many times.

“And our message to Amazon is, if our money is good enough for you, then our labour laws should be good enough for you, too.”

Senneville says it’s a “slap to the face of all the workers in Quebec.”

“They’re saying, even though it’s your right as workers to form a union, since Amazon, we don’t want a union, well we’re not doing business with you. It’s a slap in the face. I mean, we’re not respecting your rights as workers.

“They wanted to improve their working conditions and they have the right to do so by unionizing. So it’s a very bad message that Amazon is sending to all Quebec workers and all Quebec.”

The CSN recently claimed there is a growing anti-union sentiment in Quebec, alleging many employers are using anti-union maneuvers to try to weaken unions.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh weighed in, saying it was a case of Amazon “clearly” trying to “union bust.”

“These are workers that were trying to unionize and Amazon is shutting down operations in the complete region and all of Quebec just to stop these workers from demanding fairness,” Singh said. “And that’s why I say again and again we need a government in this country that is there for workers, for working people.”

Trump tariffs?

Concordia University economics professor Moshe Lander is also questioning Amazon’s explanation about cutting costs.

“It could be that, but then why did they come to go back in the first place?” Lander wonders. “They realize all of a sudden that they can’t get those cost-effective services offered here in Quebec? You would have think that due diligence would have been done before they ever showed up.”

Instead, Lander suspects Amazon’s decision could be related to impending tariffs being threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We saw that the head of Amazon was at the inauguration and we’ve heard worrying signs out of Washington about what’s going to be done to the Canadian economy,” Lander said. “This might just be, ‘let’s get out quickly before we get subjected to tariffs and find that we can’t deliver the same cost-effectiveness because there’s now this extra cost that’s added in.’

“I think it’s a sign of things to come and I think that the longer that these tariffs, when they do come and stay in place, the more we’re going to see businesses start to say, ‘maybe we need to shift production to the U.S. because that’s how we avoid these tariffs to begin with, which is exactly what the Trump administration wants.”

Senneville disagrees with Lander’s belief that impending tariffs played a part.

“Amazon in Quebec or in Canada is not selling stuff to Americans,” the CSN president said. “And that’s where the tariffs will be applied. So I don’t think it’s a link to the tariffs, because if they sell things coming from other countries in Canada, they don’t have tariffs right now.”

In any case, Lander feels Amazon’s departure from Quebec is concerning.

“In the grand scheme of things, 1,700 people isn’t a huge number in the total employment in Quebec,” the economics professor explained. “But of course, any time you’re losing jobs, especially something like Amazon, which could be here for years and years, it’s a worrying sign.

“If Amazon leaves, is this sending a signal then to other companies that it’s time to leave as well? And what the motivation that’s driving Amazon to leave the province is also going to be a factor that needs to be considered beyond just the number of jobs that are lost.”

–With files from The Canadian Press

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