Amazon to close Quebec facilities, but says it's not because of that new union

Amazon just announced it will be closing its Quebec facilities in the coming weeks, according to reporting by CBC. This move will cut more than 1,700 jobs. The company said it will begin outsourcing deliveries to smaller contractors, instead of relying on its in-house team.

"Following a recent review of our Quebec operations," the company said in a statement, "we found that returning to a third-party delivery model supported by local small businesses, similar to the one we had until 2020, will enable us to offer the same excellent service and deliver even greater savings to our customers in the long term."

This follows a successful unionization bid at an Amazon warehouse in Quebec. The workers joined the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), which represents around 330,000 people across many industries in Canada. Amazon allegedly fought these efforts, going on to say that union accreditation would not “respect the interests of its employees.”

"This decision makes no sense whatsoever," CSN president Caroline Senneville said in a statement. "Neither from a business point of view, nor from an operational point of view. Amazon, one of the most integrated companies between the click of a mouse and home delivery, would entrust all its warehousing and distribution operations throughout Quebec to a third party?"

Don’t worry. Amazon says the massive layoffs aren’t because of the aforementioned union, indicating it was a simple cost-cutting measure. We should absolutely take the company at its word because it has always been particularly friendly to unions and a friend to workers everywhere. That was sarcasm.

In any event, it is expected that the company will close the facilities within the next two months. Employees will be given a severance package of some kind, but the details have yet to be revealed. Apropos of nothing, Amazon is worth nearly $2.5 trillion dollars. It has doubled in value in the past year or so.

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