Amazon announced today that they were closing their 7 warehouses in Québec. The company says the closures are not related to the fact that one of them is unionised.
Apparently it’s not just the warehouses, but the Amazon-employed delivery workers too. Amazon will revert to third-party delivery.
That doesn’t look like two different things, to me.
Quebec is a really big place to have zero warehouses.
I think, prior to opening the first warehouse in Lachine in 2020 (see below), they were using third-party distribution/logistics centres. They’ll probably revert to that model.
I’d be fascinated to see an in-depth study of just what went on here. But since all we can do right now is speculate, I’ll speculate that there’s plenty of blame to go around. The timeline is quite interesting. In April, 2024, a union applied for certification of workers at the Lachine warehouse. In May, certification was granted. And then …
Aug. 1, 2024
An Administrative Labour Tribunal judge directs Amazon to stop interfering with union affairs at its facility in Lachine. Judge Henrik Ellefsen orders Amazon to remove and destroy all the anti-union posters the company has put up at its facilities. Amazon is ordered to pay a total of $30,000 in moral and punitive damages.
Jan. 22, 2025
Amazon announces it will shutter its facilities in Quebec in the coming weeks.
Coincidence? 
My speculation is that this was the result of a conflict between Quebec’s exceptionally strong labour laws (not to mention its repressive language laws and general anti-corporatism) and Amazon’s historically adamant opposition to both unions and the laws that support them.
Not the first time in Quebec when management has closed businesses when union certification was in progress. At least one McDonald’s closed in Montreal, and at least two Wal-Marts (Jonquiere and Gatineau) after the unions got in. But never as much as closing down a whole company’s operations such as Amazon.
The Jonquiere Wal-Mart remained empty for almost 10 years while the courts discussed the case. The workers were awarded compensation, and the store now appears to be a warehouse.
We also had the Hyundai plant in Bromont in the late 1980s - early 1990s.
Wal-Mart was ordered to compensate its workers because the judge saw that it had obviously closed only the unionized store and left the others open. One can presume that Amazon is closing everything to avoid that same situation.
They’ll just get around the laws by re-opening new warehouses under a different name – either a shell company owned by Amazon, or separate companies contracted by Amazon to do the shipping. Amazon might even lease those buildings and the equipment to them to do the work. They might even hire back some of those laid-off workers, if they promise not to support a union.
If you believe it has nothing to do with the union, how would you like to buy a very nice bridge?
I think their intention is to stay on-message that this is about business models and cost centers, so that no judge can find the word “union” in their press releases (and emails and pink slips).
Make them repay every subsidy and grant, if not in full, a big giant chunk.
With compound interest.
Unlikely. The gouvernement uses AWS like everyone else. And the AWS data centre(s) in Québec will probably remain open.
Except in that case the new companies are bound by the certification order, under the Quebec Labour Code:
Do you offer free shipping?
Only if you sign up for premium level Prime membership, which includes 1 free $0.99 music download a month.
These are all well and good, but in practice Amazon will just ship from Ontario in March, and then gradually come back to distributing some of its stuff in Québec via logistics firms such as DHL. And the Amazon delivery drivers will be out of a job, and Amazon will use delivery companies such as Intelcom (as it did up to a few years ago), whose own drivers are themselves “independent contractors”. So not the same workers, not the same employers, not the same vehicles, not the same buildings.
Yes, there’s ways for Amazon to do business in Quebec without its own warehouses and delivery crew. I was responding to the suggestion that Amazon could just play shell games with its facilities.
Ah, got it, sorry.
How much money does Amazon lose by outsourcing it all?
Amazon obviously prefers to operate their own warehouses, their own trucks, setting their own (non-unionized) work conditions, controlling their own employees/slaves.
If they outsource , they lose efficiency. Those external workers might actually go to the bathroom on their company’s time. And using external warehouses (presumably smaller and less ‘robot-ified’,) will slow down shipping.