Amazon's Closure of Quebec Warehouses Criticised Amidst Union Busting Allegations

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star.

Self-made billionaires get to be self-made billionaires because they are ruthless.

Maybe genius too, and philanthropic to sandpaper down the jagged edges -- like injecting Botox to plump out their bountiful bona fides.

Before he became the richest person in the world -- since being downgraded to No. 2, surpassed by Elon Musk -- Jeff Bezos was perceived as a cold-blooded corporate mogul who avoided the limelight. Then, around 2018, after making a $33 million donation to a non-profit that provided college scholarships for "dreamers'' -- young immigrants brought to America illegally by their parents -- and received an award for donations to a marriage equality campaign, the tech titan underwent a makeover.

Hung out with A-list celebrities, pumped iron for a muscle-cut physique, hit the red carpet with an arm candy mistress-turned-fiancée, all while his expanding and diversified empire grew: Amazon now worth $2.48 trillion (USD), with 1.52 million employees worldwide, more than 41,000 in Canada.

Ruthless still. Yet servile to and cowed by U.S. President Donald Trump after earlier killing an endorsement for Kamala Harris by the Washington Post, which he bought in 2013 -- extolled for fibrillating a renascence at the venerable newspaper. Some 200,000 subscribers cancelled in outrage.

And those inauguration festivities for Trump? Amazon contributed $1 million toward the bill. A pittance compared to the $277 million that Musk peeled out of his wallet for Trump's election campaign, which has seated him at the right hand of god. Still, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. A million is chicken feed to the tech oligarchs.

It's possible, if unlikely, that Bezos didn't even notice or much care that Amazon Canada -- a full Amazon subsidiary -- this week announced it was closing all seven of its Quebec warehouses, throwing at least 1,700 permanent employees and 250 temporary employees out of work amidst the worst cost-of-living crisis in recent memory. Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021 but he remains the largest single shareholder, owning 8.65 per cent of the multinational behemoth: 909,709,995 shares. That's a whole lotta influence. So, yeah, I'll drop a bundle of blame at his Louis Vuitton-shod feet. It isn't a stretch.

Not going to pay any mind to the little people, the worker ants in the formicarium.

Amazon is a faceless colossus. Most people couldn't pick CEO and president Andy Jassy out of a police lineup. He pulled in $29.2 million (USD) in salary and vested shares in 2023 -- and that was with a pay cut. Workers at the Laval, Quebec facility warehouse -- the only unionized Amazon workforce in Canada -- were demanding $26 per hour, a $6 increase, in the last round of negotiations for a first-ever collective agreement.

It's frustrating to hurl your wrath at a monolithic entity. So I'll put Bezos's face on this knockout blow for working-class labourers. Because this is the unforgiving union-busting working environment that Bezos instilled in the e-commerce giant he founded, a many-tentacled creature that would rather pack up its dolls and dishes than coexist with unionized employees. Which Amazon Canada corporate spin-masters insist, pshaw, has nothing to do with its leave-taking of Quebec, shape-shifted as a way to provide "even more savings to our customers over the long run,'' per the statement released Wednesday by spokesthingy Barbara Agrait.

Uh-huh. Pull the other one.

We know how hard Amazon has fought back against any whiff of unionizing by employees. When the Laval warehouse successfully unionized last May, Amazon challenged workers' accreditation with the Confederation of National Trade Unions, which accused the company of "flooding the workplace with scaremongering messages.'' Amazon lost its bid at Quebec's labour tribunal in October, which ordered the company to knock if off -- stop interfering in union affairs -- and pay the union $30,000.

Caroline Senneville, president of the union involved with organizing in Laval, said she had "no doubt'' that the closures are part of an anti-union campaign, calling it "a slap in the face for all Quebec workers.''

In the U.S., a mere one per cent of Amazon's million employees are unionized. For the past two years, Amazon has refused to recognize the upstart independent Amazon Labor Union, which made history by organizing the first Amazon warehouse in America -- 5,500 workers on Staten Island. Last June, the union voted to affiliate itself with the formidable Teamsters.

Indicative of Amazon's putative pettiness: After 84 delivery drivers in Palmdale, California, successfully unionized with the Teamsters in 2023, went on strike and won a first contract, Amazon responded by unceremoniously cancelling its contract with the subcontractor, effectively terminating those jobs.

In Quebec, Amazon claims the decision to shutter the seven facilities -- including two sorting centres and three delivery stations -- is a restructuring, following a review of its operations, reverting back to a more cost-effective third-party delivery model benefitting its business and customers. Stirrings of a province-wide Amazon boycott will doubtless go nowhere. We've all become far too attached to the online Amazon convenience.

Laid off staff -- terminations gradual over the next two months -- will receive a package with up to 14 weeks pay, after the facilities close, and job placement resources.

Big whoop.

Meanwhile, Trump, wealthiest inhabitant ever of the White House, has promised multi-billionaires Bezos, Musk and Mark Zuckerberg -- dubbed "the broligarchs'' -- massive tax cuts. The rich get richer, the working stiff gets laid off.