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

Demonstrators gathered in Montreal Saturday to protest Amazon's decision to shutter its seven warehouses in Quebec and lay off workers, including at what was Canada's only unionized Amazon facility.

Waving flags and holding anti-Amazon placards, protesters marched up the snow-blanketed streets.

Felix Trudeau, who represented the now laid-off workers at the unionized warehouse in Laval, Que., urged the public to take a stand against the company.

"We will not lay down and stop fighting ... We must have a strong reaction as a society, as a labour movement, as a working class," he said.

Trudeau and the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN,) the Quebec labour group that organized the demonstration, called on the public and all levels of government to boycott the e-commerce giant.

"I think our government should show the way and do business with businesses that do respect our laws here in Quebec, especially our labour laws," CSN President Caroline Senneville told reporters in front of Mont-Royal subway station.

Amazon announced in January that it was closing the warehouses and laying off almost 2,000 permanent workers. When counting workers employed by subcontractors, the total number of layoffs exceeds 4,500, Senneville said. She added the labour group will be taking legal action against the company in the coming weeks.

The CSN says Amazon wanted to stop what would have been the workers' first collective agreement in North America at Amazon and discourage unionization efforts elsewhere.

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, neither the protesters nor Quebec Solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal were taking the company's word for it.

"Amazon is lying," Ghazal said.

She said the company has a track record of resisting unionization and echoed the call for a boycott.

Ibrahim Mahamat and Wesley Marceau, both former employees at the DXT4 warehouse that formed a union, said injuries on the job were commonplace because of the relentless pace and intensity of the work.

Mahamat described the job as "dangerous" and called for stronger safety measures. Marceau, for his part, said he was injured more than once moving boxes.

Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait responded to the allegations Saturday, saying "Amazon complies with all legal requirements and trains managers and employees during the onboarding process on how to report and receive support for workplace injuries."

Barry Eidlin, professor of sociology at McGill University, said Amazon is shuttering its Quebec warehouses to skirt the province's labour laws.

"If they had closed just the Laval warehouse, the DXT4 warehouse, then that would have been a clear indication that it was motivated by anti-union animus, so they shut down the entire operation to as a means of providing some cover," he said in an interview Friday.

Quebec labour law, Eidlin said, forces companies to either strike a contract deal with certified unions or have one forced upon them.

"If they maintained the warehouse in Quebec, they were going to have a contract imposed by arbitration if they didn't agree to one through negotiation," he said.

"The right to join a union is a Charter protected right in Canada. It's written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's written into the International Labour Organization, but what good is that if a company can just up and leave rather than recognize workers' rights?"