Amazon announced on Wednesday it will shutter its facilities in Quebec in the coming weeks and cut more than 1,700 jobs.
A company spokesperson said Amazon will outsource deliveries to smaller contractors. The spokesperson insisted that the decision was tied to cost savings — not the recent unionization of about 200 employees at a Laval, Que., warehouse.
“Following a recent review of our Quebec operations,” the spokesperson said in an emailed 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.”
It was not immediately clear when Amazon would close its facilities, but the spokesperson told Radio-Canada it would happen in the “next two months.”
Quebec is home to Amazon’s only unionized workforce in Canada. The unionized workers in Laval were dissatisfied with what they described as a hectic work pace, low wages and inadequate health and safety measures.
At a recent demonstration, the workers said they were demanding $26 per hour, a $6 increase.
Amazon had said it was negotiating with the workers, but they had not yet reached a collective agreement.
The company has several warehouses in the Montreal area, and one in Coteau-du-Lac, about 60 kilometres west of the city. Amazon became a $2 trillion company last year. It has facilities and thousands of employees across Canada.
The spokesperson said the scaling back of its Quebec operations would result in the closure of seven sites.
Employees will be given as much as 14 weeks salary.
More to come.
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