Latest news with #Confédérationdessyndicatsnationaux
Hamilton Spectator
17-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Amazon, worker union before Quebec labour tribunal over warehouse closures
MONTREAL - A Quebec labour tribunal has begun hearing a case against Amazon over the e-commerce giant's closure in January of seven warehouses in the province. Some 1,700 employees lost their jobs following Amazon's sudden termination of its Quebec warehouse operations months after workers at a Montreal-area facility unionized with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux. In a news release, the CSN union said it is asking the tribunal to overturn Amazon's decision to close the seven centres and force the company to pay all 1,700 workers one year's salary. The CSN says Amazon has asked the tribunal to exclude the six non-unionized warehouses and limit the scope of the hearing to 287 unionized workers at the facility in Laval, Que. 'We are hopeful that the court will see clearly and ensure that the labour laws and charters of rights that prevail in Quebec are respected,' CSN president Caroline Senneville said in a statement. Amazon has said its closures were about delivering efficient and cost-effective services to customers, not a response to the union drive. Steve Kelly, an Amazon spokesman, said employees were provided with a package that included up to 14 weeks' pay after the warehouses were shuttered, in addition to other transition benefits like job placement. 'Throughout this process, we've complied and will continue to comply with all applicable federal and provincial laws,' Kelly said. A spokesman for the union says the hearings are scheduled to take place intermittently over the next few months. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2025.
Toronto Star
16-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
Amazon, worker union before Quebec labour tribunal over warehouse closures
MONTREAL - A Quebec labour tribunal has begun hearing a case against Amazon over the e-commerce giant's closure in January of seven warehouses in the province. Some 1,700 employees lost their jobs following Amazon's sudden termination of its Quebec warehouse operations months after workers at a Montreal-area facility unionized with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux. In a news release, the CSN union says it is asking the tribunal to overturn Amazon's decision to close the seven centres and force the company to pay all 1,700 workers one year's salary. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The CSN says Amazon has asked the tribunal to exclude the six non-unionized warehouses and limit the scope of the hearing to 287 unionized workers at the facility in Laval, Que. Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment but has said its closures were about delivering efficient and cost-effective services to customers, not a response to the union drive. A spokesman for the union says the hearings are scheduled to take place intermittently over the next few months. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2025.
CBC
14-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Protest forces cancellation of Quebec labour minister's speech in Montreal
Social Sharing A speech by Quebec's labour minister to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal was cancelled on Friday after more than 1,000 unionized workers gathered in protest over a controversial bill tabled by the minister last month. Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet was set to speak at the Plaza Centre-Ville, but the situation outside got out of hand, according to Montreal police, who say a hotel window was smashed and an officer was assaulted, but not injured. Boulet left the event on recommendation of Quebec provincial police, before he had the chance to speak. In February, the minister tabled a bill that, if adopted, would give more power to the provincial government to limit the duration of strikes and lockouts. Bill 89 would also allow Quebec to step in to avoid disruption of services in schools and municipalities. This drew the ire of many union organizations, nine of which organized the large workers' rally downtown on Friday afternoon. "First of all, it's important to stress that I fully support the right to demonstrate. However, it must be exercised with respect for public order, and without resorting to violence," read a statement sent from Boulet's office following the event. He added that the goal of Bill 89 is to give "greater consideration to the needs of the public in the event of a strike or lockout, particularly those of vulnerable people." Boulet explained that Quebec does not intend on taking away workers' right to strike. But Caroline Senneville, head of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) union, sees it differently. "We think it's illegal and we're gonna contest this in front of the tribunals, but the thing is, when you do that, it takes time and damage will be done," she said. "The Supreme Court has been really clear: we have a right to form unions, we have a right to negotiate in good faith and we have the right to strike if we need to and what the government is doing right now, what the Quebec government is doing, is infringing on these rights." Senneville says Bill 89 could impact workers' leverage to improve their working conditions. Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, says he's disappointed that the workers' actions resulted in the event being cancelled, although he says he supports their right to protest. "In 16 years, it's the first time we cancel an event because protesters decided to do whatever they want ... to stop an exchange with a minister on his intentions and current day issues," said Leblanc.
CBC
09-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Amazon starts closing Quebec warehouses as union president calls for boycott
The union that represents workers at what was Canada's only unionized Amazon warehouse says the online retail giant has begun shutting down its seven facilities in Quebec this week, putting thousands of employees out of work. Félix Trudeau, union president for the Laval, Que., Amazon warehouse that unionized last May said he has confirmation that three warehouses in the Montreal area, including his own, closed late Friday night. Some workers showed up to their late shifts Friday night only to find out the warehouses closed, Trudeau said, adding he heard that a fourth warehouse, located in Montreal, closed earlier this week despite being scheduled to shutter in March. However Amazon said in a statement that the three facilities closed Saturday as planned, while it said the fourth location closed earlier than prescribed without specifying when. The company is cutting nearly 2,000 jobs, but the number of total layoffs rises to about 4,500 when workers employed by subcontractors are factored in, according to Quebec labour group Confédération des syndicats nationaux. Trudeau, who represents about 260 Amazon workers, accused the e-commerce goliath of closing its warehouses in the province to punish employees at his warehouse for unionizing last May. He has called for a boycott until Amazon reopens its facilities or agrees to pay all its laid-off employees one year's salary with benefits. "We want there to be consequences for Amazon's anti-union, anti-Quebec actions. We want the government at the different levels of government — municipal, provincial and federal — not only to stop buying from Amazon but to stop supporting Amazon's behaviour by cutting their contracts with Amazon and all of its affiliates," he said in an interview Saturday. On Thursday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced on X that the City of Montreal would cease ordering on Amazon "until further notice." Amazon has previously dismissed the suggestion that the closures are linked to a unionization push in the province and has said they are aimed at delivering efficient and cost-effective services to customers. The closure of the Quebec facilities will mean Amazon will revert to a business model it used in the province up until 2020, which employed local, third-party companies for package deliveries. On Saturday afternoon, protesters temporarily occupied an office belonging to Intelcom, a courier and package delivery company, in Montreal's Anjou borough. One of the protesters, Benoit Dumais, said demonstrators wanted to send a message because Intelcom will become a major subcontractor for Amazon in the province after closing down its own warehouses "We were there to denounce Amazon but also expose that Intelcom is going to be the subcontractors and their working conditions are also very poor, so we're still in the same logic of very cheap labour-intensive work," he said. Intelcom responded to the accusations by saying it "has always been committed to providing a flexible work environment and growth opportunities for all its employees." Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said 20 to 30 demonstrators took part and there were no arrests. The group left the offices to protest in front of the building shortly after police arrived, he said.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Canadian Union to Take Legal Action Against Amazon for ‘Blatant Union-Busting Motives'
A Canadian union plans to take Amazon to task, claiming planned Québec, Canada, closures came only to shut down a unionization effort. The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) has stated it will pursue legal action against the e-commerce behemoth for violations of Canadian labor law. The union's announcement comes just weeks after Amazon announced in late January that it would close seven warehouses in Québec, Canada, which will result in 1,700 full-time Amazon employees losing their jobs. More from Sourcing Journal This Bankrupt Reverse Logistics Expert/Closeout Chain Blames Amazon What the Tariffs Mean For Fashion And Retail Trump Tariffs Prompt Swift Retaliation by North American Trade Partners, Hand-Wringing from Economists and Industry Leaders Part of the CSN's gripe with Amazon is that, leading up to the company's plan to close the facilities, workers at the DXT4 Amazon warehouse in Laval, Québec, had been negotiating a contract after voting to unionize; the Canadian arbiter approved their application in May 2024, but the group of workers had yet to come to a finished collective bargaining agreement with the Prime purveyor. Bargaining began in July 2024, and CSN expected to see an agreement signed this year. Senneville said the CSN believes the presence of a union dissuaded Amazon from doing further business in the province. 'They're not fooling anyone,' she said. 'The only reason for Amazon to have a different business model just for Québec is that there's a union here and an arbitrator could have imposed a first collective agreement as early as the summer of 2025.' CSN said Tuesday that it plans to petition a court to void the layoffs, reopen the seven warehouses it plans to close, reinstate the employees impacted by the closures and pay them damages. Caroline Senneville, president of the CSN, said Amazon's 'blatant union-busting motives' violate the country's labor code. 'The closures announced by Amazon aren't true closures in the legal sense, since Amazon plans to continue selling its products to Quebecers online,' Senneville said. 'Amazon thinks it can just shift the work to other corporate entities and outsource some warehousing and delivery operations. What it calls its 'new business model' is just an attempt to circumvent its obligations under the Labour Code. The court should recognize that this scheme violates the law and it can then order the reinstatement of Amazon's workers.' But Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said the closures, which will see the e-commerce giant shifting back to a delivery model 'supported by local small businesses,' don't violate Canadian law. 'In making this decision, we've complied and will continue to comply with all applicable federal and provincial laws,' she said in an emailed statement, noting that the company's plans have not changed in light of the CSN's threats. According to the CSN, the union will fight on 'issues such as retroactive pay and recall rights in the event of reopening.' As such, it submitted a request for first contract arbitration to Canada's labor minister last week. In addition to its legal threats, the CSN has asked consumers, companies and Canadian government agencies to boycott Amazon, whether by not buying products from the platform, canceling Amazon Prime subscriptions, axing contracts with Amazon and its subsidiaries like AWS or otherwise. The union said though Amazon's decision to shutter the warehouses directly impacted 1,700 of its own employees, approximately 2,800 others have lost or will lose their jobs as a byproduct of the decision. That, it contends, is because Amazon worked with subcontractors to meet its needs in the Canadian province. Senneville said, from the CSN's perspective, if Amazon doesn't want to remain a piece of Québec's economy, agencies shouldn't give it opportunities to turn profits in the area. 'A company that flouts our laws shouldn't be allowed to do business here, let alone receive public contracts,' Senneville said. 'Many local businesses have been hard hit by the upheaval in the retail sector caused by Amazon's arrival in Québec. Now more than 4,500 people have lost their jobs. It's time to take a stand against Amazon's repeated offenses and support our own businesses. Let's stop buying from Amazon and start buying locally instead.'
