Demonstrators accuse Amazon of union-busting at rally in Montreal, call for boycott

Demonstrators gathered in Montreal today to protest Amazon’s decision to shutter its seven warehouses in Quebec, including what was Canada’s only unionized Amazon facility. 

Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the labour group organizing the demonstration, is calling for a boycott of the e-commerce giant whose decision the CSN says has cost more than 4,500 people their jobs. 

Félix Trudeau, who represented the now laid-off workers at the unionized warehouse in Laval, Que., has accused Amazon of closing the facility to quash unionization efforts after his union was certified last May. 

“They are afraid that we were going to get a collective agreement. We were actually going to have better working conditions like we were going to work with dignity and give an example to the rest of the North American Union movement and to prevent that from happening, from setting the right example, they are trying to set the wrong example with this simply terroristic decision,” said Trudeau.

The CSN says the company wanted to stop what would have been the workers’ first collective agreement in North America at Amazon and intimidate employees elsewhere. 

“To all the governments be it municipal, provincial, federal. This is not the way we do business in Canada as Minister Champagne said. So now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and stop doing business with Amazon. It might not make a big difference for Amazon but it sure is going to make a big difference for the businesses here in Quebec and in Canada,” said Caroline Senneville, the president of CSN.

François Houle, a supporter added, “It looks wonderful, great service, you’ve got your item in 24 hours and so, but there’s always a cost behind everything. And the thing with Amazon is the human cost. And I’m not sure this is actually what you would wish for your neighbor.”

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Amazon has dismissed accusations of union-busting, saying its decision to close the warehouses was based on delivering efficient and cost-effective services to customers.

However, McGill University sociology professor Barry Eidlin says Amazon is likely closing its Quebec warehouses because the province’s labour laws would have forced contract arbitration if an agreement wasn’t struck through negotiation.

-With files from the Canadian Press