Amazon closing all Quebec warehouses, laying off more than 1,700 workers

Amazon's Laval warehouse. (LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Ryan Remiorz)

Online retail giant Amazon is closing all of its warehouses in Quebec and laying off hundreds of workers.

The company says it will cease operations over the next two months in seven operation sites, one fulfillment centre, two sorting centres, three delivery stations and one AMXL (extra large) delivery station that is co-located with a sorting centre.

Barbara Agrait, a spokesperson with Amazon, denies that the decision was made following the unionization of 200 employees last spring at Amazon’s DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Que.

In total, 1,700 regular employees in Quebec and 250 temporary-seasonal workers will be laid off.

‘We were all blindsided’

Bobbie-jo Vaughan worked for Amazon for three years and reached out to CTV News to say she she was completely shocked by the news.

When she got to work Wednesday, she saw news crews outside the DXT6 warehouse, which wasn’t unusual with the unionization efforts that were underway.

• Here’s where Amazon is shuttering warehouses in Quebec

But as soon as she saw her coworkers' faces, she knew something was wrong.

“Nobody had any idea. We were all blindsided, nobody knew nothing. There was no like, ‘Okay, this is what’s coming.' Sit down your employees, you know, have a meeting. Let them know what’s going on, nothing,” she said.

“They were saying in the news, ‘Oh, it’s not about the union.' It’s definitely about the union,” she added, pointing out that the company was scheduled to appear in court over union disputes.

Vaughan told CTV News she had just gotten promoted in October and was “so happy” to have better pay, better hours, better responsibility and have a less physically demanding position.

“Then there goes the carpet from under me,” she said. “What am I going to do next?”

Agrait said seasonal workers “will be compensated until the last day of their contracts,” and impacted employees are set to receive packages including up to 14 weeks of pay once facilities close, as well as transitional benefits, “like job placement resources.”

But Vaughan, a single mother of a teen boy and young adult who lives at home, said she was told she would get 10 weeks pay with no confirmation of insurance.

“I was surprised. I did hear the news that something was going on in Laval but I wasn’t sure they were going to shut down the whole operation,” said Hardeep Saini, an Amazon employee who’s been working for the company since November.

“They just told us that Amazon decided to close the warehouses in Quebec,” added Felhath Idir, who says he’ll now have to find a way to support his family, who arrived in the province a year ago.

“It’s bad news. It’s sad. I don’t know what’s happening but I hope that they’ll fix the problem. It’s sad,” said Aghiles Hemadi, who says he doesn’t want to go on employment insurance.

Amazon says it plans to return to its third-party model, “supported by small local businesses” for package deliveries.

“This is something we already had in Quebec, we had it in place until 2020,” said Agrait. “We believe it’s going to allow us to provide the same great business to our customers.”

In an interview with CTV News, Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) President Caroline Senneville called the announcement “outrageous.”

“Thousands of workers will be laid off in warehouses and different delivery centres,” she said. “But also, people that do the deliveries and drive the trucks will be laid off.”

She called Amazon “anti-union” and said the decision was “not a surprise.”

“My message to Amazon is always the same, if our money here in Canada is good enough for you, then our labour laws should be enough for you too,” said Senneville.

“I can assure that our legal department is looking into this and seeing what can be done. Will they really be subcontracting? We will look into that. And of course, we will be there for the workers and to have their rights preserve.”

The company lost its challenge against the workers` attempt to unionize at the province’s labour tribunal in October.

‘Private decision by a private company’

Premier François Legault was asked about the decision and said the decision was regrettable.

“I’m sad and I can understand that it must be tough for the 1,700 families involved with these decisions,” said Legault. “Amazon is a private company so why do they do that, how do they do that … the answer must be asked to Amazon. I’m not managing Amazon. It’s a private decision by a private company.”

When asked about the closures, Quebec Employment Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain said Wednesday she heard the news from the media.

“It’s a decision from Amazon, it’s a reorganization decision,” she said. “We’ll be there for the employees, that’s what we do in the employment ministry, help workers find other work.”

Canada’s Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, reacted on X by writing: “I expressed our dismay and frustration after learning in the news that they intend to let go of 1,700 employees and close all seven of their warehouses in Québec.”

Quebec Liberal employment critic Madwa-Nika Cadet believes it would be appropriate for the Quebec government to boycott Amazon. “For sure, the government needs to stop buying from Amazon at this point.”

The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, sees the closure of the warehouses as a demonstration of the failure of the government’s strategy of courting foreign companies to attract investment.

“We can’t be surprised that these companies have no loyalty to our workers,” he said on the sidelines of the caucus in Terrebonne.

Quebec Treasury Board President Sonia Lebel also commented on the decision.

“What we have been putting forward last autumn at the end of 2024 is we asked everybody to be very sensitive and to prioritize buying Quebec to make sure the state has to be exemplary,” said Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel when asked about Amazon. “That’s the message that we sent.”

With files from The Canadian Press