MONTREAL — Hundreds of members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) and other unionists marched and rallied in the snow here Feb. 15 to protest Amazon’s move to shutter its seven Quebec distribution centers. Union flags identified teachers, office workers, steelworkers, autoworkers, nurses and numerous union federations.
The CSN estimates job losses at over 4,000. “Returning to a third-party delivery model supported by small local businesses, similar to what we had in 2020,” the company claimed, “will provide the same good service, and even cost savings for our customers in the long run.”
“On Jan. 22 at 2:00 a.m., bosses informed us that we’d be laid off as of Feb. 8. They said they hadn’t made money for the past four years. But it’s really because of the union,” Hassam Abakar Ali, who worked at the Laval warehouse, told the Militant. “We wanted to unionize because the work is hard. And our rights weren’t respected.”
“It’s acting like a bandit, when a multinational like Amazon closes its doors leaving hundreds of workers with injuries,” Jean-Baptiste Uguelin, also from Laval, told the rally. Uguelin does weekly physiotherapy for a back injury.
Dozens of striking hotel workers joined the march. Yves Olivier, on strike at the Hotel PUR since August 2024, came from Quebec City. “In life, freedom and social justice were never given for free. They were won in battle,” he told the Militant.
“We’ve been out since July,” Lili Merzouk, a housekeeper on strike at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, said. “It started with a one-hour strike, then 24 hours, now it’s unlimited. We’re here to stand in solidarity.”
Union officials and Martin Caron, general president of Quebec’s Union of Agricultural Producers, led the march, holding a banner reading, “Buy local, boycott Amazon. No contract, no purchases.”
“We join Amazon workers’ fight for a union — throughout Canada, in the U.S. and beyond,” Philippe Tessier, a Teamster rail worker and Communist League candidate in Montreal’s Bourassa riding in the upcoming federal elections, told the Militant. “Union strength will be built by mobilizing independently in the fight for jobs, for union rights.”
Amazon workers at a warehouse near Vancouver, British Columbia, signed up with the Unifor union and are pushing for union certification. A couple dozen rallied at Amazon-owned Whole Foods in solidarity with the Quebec action. “Amazon is the driving force behind the race to the bottom for warehouse and delivery workers,” Dustin Saunders, a rail worker and Teamsters member, told the Militant at the rally. “Amazon and other unorganized workers need to be unionized to be able to fight for workers’ rights, especially in health and safety.”