The New Year did not begin well for 1,700 Amazon workers employed at seven company facilities in Quebec. All will be laid off by March, as the company decided to permanently close its Quebec operations.
Amazon is not ending their business in Quebec. They have decided to shift to a “third-party model”, where contractors will be used to deliver packages throughout the province.
The Amazon playbook does not include unionization of its staff, and after 200 workers at the company’s DXT4 ware-house in Laval chose to organ-ize last spring, the company challenged Quebec’s automatic certification labour laws, which grant certification without a vote if a clear majority indicate, by signing a union card, that they want to be organized.
Automatic certification is foreign to Amazon, such pro-visions do not exist in the United States. The company lost their challenge to the Quebec laws, and they have opted to close operations as they faced the imposition of a first contract by way of an arbitrator if they did not reach a negotiated deal with the union.
Even where workers win government supervised certification votes, as occurred at Amazon’s JFK8 Fulfilment Center, in Staten Island, New York, in April 2022, the company has filed countless legal appeals and refused to negotiate with the workers.
This approach to labour relations is not new in the U.S. It is why late last year, the downward trend continued to where less than 10 per cent of the American workforce is now unionized, the lowest level in nine decades.
American educator and writer, Jefferson Cowie, in his book, The Great Exception, the New Deal and the Limits of American Politics, quotes American labor law professor, Cynthia Estlund, commenting on the state of American labor law, stating: “The core of American la-bour law has essentially been sealed off – from both democratic revision and renewal and from experimentation and innovation”, leaving it, “frozen or ossified, for over fifty years.”
Billionaire oligarch, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, joined Elon Musk and most of the leaders of Silicon Valley in support of Donald Trump’s successful re-election as U.S. President. Bezos and company had front row seats at the Trump inauguration with cabi-net members seated behind them.
Trump, who won the election largely due to the unprecedented support from working-class people, especially males without college degrees, has quickly pivoted from those workers and is delivering for big tech.
In late January Trump fired the acting chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox. This was an unprecedented move as Wilcox served under a congressional appointment not set to expire until 2028. This move, along with the dismissal of NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, caused former U.S. Labour secretary, Robert Reich to comment:
“Presto – American workers are no longer protected from illegal firings or unfair labour practices by their employers. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 is effectively gone. Employers can wreak havoc on their workers.”
In the end, this is all about power, and the oligarchs, some of whom used to oppose Trump, have decided their path to enhanced privilege and power is through alignment with the Trump 2.0. Expect union density in America to continue its long, steady de-cline, which means inequality will continue its long steady rise.
Contrast that with events here in Manitoba, when it comes to worker rights.
Since their election in October 2023, the NDP government led by Wab Kinew has increased worker rights, including the following changes:
The NDP have won nine of the last 15 elections in Manitoba. No NDP government has done more for workers in such a short period of time than the present government. Their record is not perfect, and they face no shortage of challenges. But the restoration and expansion of worker rights paves the way for less inequality and a brighter future for our province.
This will offer little solace to Quebec Amazon workers as they face lay-offs. But it under- scores the fact that worker rights are central to the formation of the strong democracy that we all want, and must fight to defend.
You can also download the PDF here: