Amazon warehouse closures in Quebec have led to thousands of layoffs

In addition to the roughly 2,000 employees laid off by Amazon after the company announced it would be closing its Quebec warehouses, more than 2,500 other people employed by smaller carriers subcontracted by the company have also lost their jobs. 

The shockwaves from the announcement last week by the U.S. online retail giant continue in the province as the closures are expected to take place over several weeks, concluding on March 22. 

Quebec's Labour Ministry says it's received notices of mass layoffs from 23 logistics and transport companies linked to Amazon, known as delivery service partners (DSPs). 

According to figures compiled by Radio-Canada, the total number of layoffs resulting from Amazon's closure of its seven Quebec warehouses has risen to 4,543. 

The company encourages the creation of these kinds of smaller delivery companies on its website, boasting startup costs as low as $15,000 with profits of between $75,000 and $175,000. The website also says 4,400 DSPs have been created since 2018, employing more than 390,000 people in 20 countries. 

As of Friday, Quebec is still on the list of available locations for those interested in applying for the DSP program.

Amazon has denied any link between the closures and the unionization of 250 employees at the DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Que., in recent months.

But labour experts have said they believe otherwise. 

In an interview with CBC News last week, Adam King, an assistant professor in the labour studies program at the University of Manitoba, said Amazon had tried to contest the certification of the union's bargaining unit and lost.

"I think essentially what's happening here is that the clock was ticking down on a first collective agreement," King said.

A collective bargaining agreement could have led to the union expanding to other facilities in the province, King suggested.

Amazon told Radio-Canada it had decided to return to "a third-party delivery model, supported by small local businesses, similar to the one we had until 2020," the year it began to build the massive warehouses in Quebec.