Online retailer Amazon said Wednesday that it’s closing all seven of its warehouses in the Canadian province of Quebec in the next two months.
The e-commerce giant said the move would provide “even more savings to our customers over the long run.” However, a Canadian union that successfully unionized one warehouse accused the company of closing its sites to fend off organizing efforts in the region.
The closures will eliminate about 1,700 permanent full-time jobs in the greater Montreal area, Amazon said. The warehouses also employ 250 temporary employees.
Amazon said it would enlist local, third-party companies to deliver packages, reverting to a business model it used in Quebec before 2020.
“This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we’re offering impacted employees a package that includes up to 14 weeks’ pay after facilities close and transitional benefits, like job placement resources,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said in a statement.
Agrait said the decision was made following a “recent review” of the company’s operations in the province. The closing sites include one fulfillment center, two sorting centers, three delivery stations and a facility Amazon dubs AMXL because it aids in the shipment of large goods such as TVs and furniture.
Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne wrote on the social media platform X that he had contacted the head of Amazon’s operations in Canada to share his objections.
“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 Quebec,” Champagne said. “This is not the way business is done in Canada.”
About 240 Amazon workers at a company warehouse in Laval, a Montreal suburb, unionized in May, becoming the first of the tech company’s Canadian warehouses to do so. Amazon challenged the union’s right to represent the workers but lost at a provincial labor tribunal in October.
Caroline Senneville, president of the union involved with the organizing in Laval, said she has “no doubt” that Wednesday’s closures, which she called “a slap in the face for all Quebec workers,” were part of an anti-union campaign.
“It’s a move that runs counter to the provisions of the Labour Code, and one we’ll be taking a firm stand against,” she said in a press release.
Michael Lynk, a Western University professor emeritus of law, said he saw Amazon’s move as “a labor relations ‘Groundhog Day'” for Quebec, where a similar situation played out 20 years ago with Walmart Canada.
Walmart closed a store in Jonquiere, Quebec, citing profitability troubles just months after workers there received union certification.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union decided to fight back and, in 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed Walmart violated Quebec labor law.