Retail giant Amazon is ending its operations in Québec, closing seven operation sites and cutting roughly 1,900 jobs, according to Radio-Canada. It will continue to deliver orders to customers in Québec through third-party distributors, similar to how it operated in 2020, the company said.
A total of seven operation sites near Montréal and its surrounding communities, including in Lachine, Longueuil, and Coteau-du-Lac, will be closed over the next two months. The affected sites include three delivery stations, two sorting centres, one fulfillment centre, and an extra-large (AMXL) delivery station.
One-thousand seven hundred part-time and full-time employees, as well as 250 seasonal workers, will be laid off. Barbara Agrait, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement that the seasonal workers will be compensated until the last day of their contracts and affected employees will get up to 14 weeks’ severance pay and transitional benefits.
Amazon denies that its decision to exit Québec was tied to the unionization of its warehouse in Laval, Que.
Québec was the only province in Canada with a unionized Amazon workplace. The Conféderation des syndicats nationaux (CSN) filed an application to represent roughly 250 employees at the DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Que., last spring.
However, there was no official collective agreement in place. The CSN has been at the bargaining table with Amazon since July, with negotiation meetings scheduled throughout January.
Amazon denies that its decision to pull out of Québec was tied to the unionization. Agrait said that the move follows “a recent review of Québec operations” in the province and that the “decision wasn’t made lightly.” BetaKit reached out and did not receive any additional information.
Earlier this month, CityNews and The Canadian Press reported that at least 30 DXT4 employees were told they were being let go. CSN president Caroline Senneville called the layoffs a “retaliatory measure” on Amazon’s part, but a spokesperson for the e-commerce giant said this claim was false and the workers were hired as seasonal employees with a clear contract end date.
Radio-Canada reported that Montréal-based courier company Intelcom, which is already an Amazon subcontractor, might take over some delivery operations.
“Amazon is one of the many clients for whom Intelcom provides last-mile logistics services in Canada and across borders,” an Intelcom spokesperson wrote in an email to BetaKit. “We value our long-standing relationship with them and look forward to continuing our collaboration to balance capacity needs in Québec.”
Québec’s minister of employment, Kateri Champagne Jourdain, told Radio-Canada that she had not yet received a notice of the mass layoffs.
“As soon as that’s done, we’ll set up the usual process,” Jourdain said in French. ”For example, a placement committee to support workers who want to move to another sector, find a job, or receive training.”
Feature image courtesy Amazon Canada.