Amazon is planning to close all seven of its facilities in Quebec, Canada, cutting more than 1,700 jobs across the province.
According to CBC, the e-commerce giant cited a need to cut costs as the main motivation behind the move, and said it is instead looking to outsource its operations in Quebec to third-party contractors. Quebec’s DXT4 warehouse in Laval was also the company’s only unionized facility in the country, after successfully voting to organize in May 2024. Seven months later, Amazon was reportedly getting ready to make its first offer to the nascent union for a collective bargaining deal, before ultimately deciding to shutter all of its Quebec warehouses, sorting centers and delivery hubs.
CSN — the group that represents the unionized group — denounced the closures shortly after they were announced, with the organization’s president Caroline Senneville calling the decision a “slap in the face to employees.”
“From the beginning, Amazon has done everything to prevent its employees from unionizing,” Senneville said. “And today, we learn that the multinational prefers to withdraw from Quebec rather than respect its obligation to agree on a collective agreement? This is totally unacceptable.”
Amazon opened its first facility in Quebec in 2020, before expanding its operations over the next year to fill what it described as a growing demand for faster service, primarily in the Montreal metropolitan area. With the company now spinning down its facilities in the province, Amazon says that it plans to give workers up to 14 weeks in severance pay.
