LAVAL, Quebec — Dozens of workers, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions, rallied at Canada’s only unionized Amazon warehouse Dec. 23 to demand their first contract. Supporters from other unions joined them in solidarity here, just northwest of Montreal, where some 230 union members work.
“They tried to stop it before it started. But we showed them we really wanted this,” union member Musa Gaku told CBC News. “In the last six months we’ve reported almost 126 injuries,” Hillary Kibos added.
“Our work conditions are clearly inferior to those in other warehouses,” Felix Trudeau, president of the local union, told the media. “Amazon has ample means to pay us properly.”
The union was certified in May. After six months of negotiations, the company is supposed to make an offer Jan. 16. The workers are demanding starting pay of 26 Canadian dollars an hour ($18). Right now they start at CA$20. In Quebec a first contract goes to arbitration if there is no negotiated agreement.
Elsewhere, more than 800 workers at Walmart’s Mississauga, Ontario, warehouse voted in September to join Unifor, one of Canada’s largest industrial unions. It is the first Walmart warehouse to be unionized in Canada. Some 95 drivers at Walmart in Surrey, British Columbia, voted to join Unifor in November.