Amazon Canada says it will close all seven of its Quebec warehouses and lay off staff over the next two months.
The e-commerce giant positioned the move scuttling 1,700 permanent jobs and 250 temporary ones as a way to provide “even more savings to our customers over the long run” and dismissed concerns that it was linked to a recent unionization push in the province.
“This is about offering the best service we can to customers in a way that’s efficient and cost effective,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said in email on Wednesday, when asked to comment on whether the closures were an attempt at union busting.
About 240 Amazon workers at the company’s DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Que., a Montreal suburb, managed to unionize in May, 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.
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The company lost its challenge at the province’s labour tribunal in October.
The closure of the seven Quebec facilities will mean Amazon will revert to a business model it used in Quebec up until 2020, which employed local, third-party companies for package deliveries.
The closure news on Wednesday followed “a recent review of our Quebec operations,” Agrait said.
“This decision wasn’t made lightly,” she added.
The closing sites include one fulfilment centre, two sorting centres, three delivery stations and a facility Amazon dubs AMXL because it aids in the shipment of large goods like TVs or furniture.
Laid off staff will receive a package with up to 14 weeks’ pay after the facilities close and transitional benefits, like job placement resources.
