Amazon recently shuttered all seven Quebec warehouses, leaving approximately 1,700 workers jobless. This decision followed the recent unionization of the company’s Laval warehouse with the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) in April 2024.
Despite Amazon’s contention that the decision stemmed from cost-cutting, workers’ advocates asserted that the company was trying to cut the influence of the union. Unfortunately for Quebec workers, this tactic is all too familiar. But no matter how hard the company attempts to bust unions, the unionization of Amazon workers should remain a primary concern for the working class.
Dis-economies of algorithmic scale
Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world, currently employing 41,000 workers in Canada and 1.53 million workers globally. A key to its success is its warehouse location strategy—accounting for factors, including customer proximity, transportation infrastructure, and proximity to suppliers. A major component of this strategy relies on threatening workers against unionization. This is evident from job listings posted by Amazon for investigators to notify the company of any organizing efforts and internal memos detailing the company’s strategy to utilize local partnerships with non-profits to neutralize efforts by organized labour.
However, there has been an inverse relationship between Amazon’s growth, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, and its anti-union efforts. Although the company has successfully thwarted some union efforts, as was evident with the union drive in Bessemer, Alabama, its control over Amazon workers has slipped. The Amazon Labour Union’s (ALU) victory in New York remains the strongest example of the company’s loss of control.
Union busting is not unique to Amazon. Yet, the company’s unwillingness to bargain with the ALU (now waiting more than one thousand days for a contract) demonstrates its fear of a unionized warehouse floor. It makes sense that the leviathan that is Amazon would not want any union interfering with their profits.
Prime union membership
Amazon plays a vital role in the economy. In the USA, it is the second-largest employer, behind Walmart. Absent from these numbers are the thousands of “third-party contractors” that Amazon refuses to identify as employees. It plays a vital role in providing services to other employers. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) strike is the most recent example of how destabilizing a strike within a major part of the logistics industry can be.
Of course, Amazon’s worker demographics are another factor that contributes to the importance of any potential union drive. These workers are more representative of the wider working class. It is much easier for a broader working class to unite with a union representing all workers.
Additionally, there is a permanence to warehouse work. Almost half of Amazon workers quit before the one-year mark of their employment, reflecting a notoriously unsafe work environment. Considering that one of the main objectives for unionizing was the Laval worker’s health and safety concerns, it can be inferred that with a union fighting for greater occupational health and safety measures, turnover rates should decline.
Billy Bragg said it best, there is power in a union. We all will feel the loss of the Laval warehouse. The ongoing union efforts terrify Amazon. I for one hope to see the workers empowered.
For more on the efforts by workers to unionize Amazon, check out Spring’s upcoming screening of the documentary “Union,” featuring a live Q&A with Amazon Labour Union co-founder Chris Smalls, happening in Toronto on March 4, 2025. Get your tickets here.
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