Montreal Amazon’s Workers Committee The Amazon warehouse workers committee brings together former and current Amazon workers, with the support of the Immigrant Workers Centre to create a space for workers to discuss the range of issues workers face. Whether it be health and safety, basic labour rights and wages, or problems related to unfair treatment by managers. The committee supports workers’ efforts to file complaints at the CNESST, for their health and safety benefits, and complaints related to unjust dismissal, just to name a few.

We also wish to build a network to improve the conditions of all Amazon workers related to the rates, improved health and safety, scheduling and work conditions. We are a committee made up of all backgrounds; From India, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

We are also a committee of both women and men. Our committee reflects the diversity of Amazon’s workforce. Amazon’s foothold in Quebec Amazon’s presence in Quebec is a relatively recent phenomenon. Amazon’s first facility opened up in July of 2020. According to Amazon Canada, Amazon is tremendously proud to open our first fulfillment centre in Quebec, creating over 300 jobs in a safe, inclusive and innovative work environment that has competitive pay and benefits starting on day one.

This milestone will also allow us to better serve our local customers, along with the thousands of local small businesses that work with Amazon to bring their products to customers across the province and around the world (Amazon, 2020). While Amazon’s entry into Quebec was already underway, the COVID-19 pandemic fueled its rapid expansion. As one financial commentator put it: “This goes to show that Amazon has not only the foresight to build e-commerce to what it is today, but it has earth-shaking events paving the road to its retail shopping domination ever smoother” (Jay, (2022)).

Amazon’s presence in Quebec is a case in point. Since the opening of their fulfillment centre, YUL2, in Lachine industrial park, Amazon has opened three additional delivery stations in Laval and Lachine, and its first sortation centre in Longueuil in 2021. And now, it is opening a central 720,000-square-foot facility — about the size of six Canadian football fields — 60 kilometres west of Montreal. Amazon has also just constructed a more significant, more technologically advanced Sortation centre in the western part of the metropolitan region (Jedah, (2021)). Amazon currently employs 2,000 workers in Quebec.

According to La Presse, “48% of all online purchases are made on Amazon in Quebec. Of online purchases totalling $16 billion, $7.7 billion went into the pockets of the Seattle giant last year” (Fournier, (2022)). Now one in three Quebec residents areAmazon Prime subscribers. This advantage was made possible by the construction of its extensive network of distribution centres and logistics infrastructure, which has allowed Amazon to drop the minimum $25 purchase for Amazon Prime free one-day delivery in Canada.

Montreal has promoted its logistics hub as having competitive operating costs in comparison to other logistics hubs in North America. For example, the average warehouse wage in Montreal in 2021 is 31,444 CAD dollars, while in Chicago, the average wage is 39,917 CAD dollars (Montreal International, 2022). This has enabled the nearly doubling of employment in the warehousing and storage sector over the past 10 years (Ibid). In greater Montreal, 120,000 people work for some 6,000 companies in logistics and distribution, from driving trucks and providing last-mile delivery to working in warehouses and ports (Ibid), making it one of the largest sectors in the Montreal region in terms of employment. Given the saturation of logistics firms and warehouses, coupled with an acute labour shortage, part of Amazon’s ‘labour fix’ therefore necessitates that it sets itself apart within the sector to ensure a steady labour supply.

Our demands

1. Amazon comply with the new health and safety laws: Amazon hold an assembly of workers in order for workers to democratically elect their representatives and Health and Safety representative

2. We want Amazon to respect Quebec labour laws and when they are not, Quebec relevant authorities to enforce the laws

3. We want to denounce Amazon’s firing of workers, especially those who reach 2 years, through using an arbitrary and unjust warnings on workers quotas.

4. We want Amazon’s systemic use of ‘white badges’ seasonal fixed term contracts to be denounced

5. We want a public inquiry into the work conditions inside Amazon’s facilities

6. We want stronger laws to protect the workers and the growing size of Amazon’s influence on changes in warehouse work. Such laws have been passed in California, Minnesota, and New York State to limit productivity quotas. Also that there should be stricter laws which put limits on the weights lifted at warehouses such as the US where their are limits of 18 kilos.

7. That Amazon stop its interference in the union campaign at YUL2, and even firing workers who were union supporters.