A few hours after learning that they will lose their jobs in the coming weeks, several Amazon workers will return to work Thursday to cart boxes, with rage in their hearts. “No one is going to smile, that’s for sure,” confides an employee at the Laval warehouse.
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“I’m angry, it’s a really insulting gesture on the part of Amazon,” spits Félix Trudeau, a 27-year-old sorting clerk at the DXT4 warehouse, in an interview with The Journal.
The announcement of the closure of seven Amazon warehouses came as a “total surprise” to employees on Wednesday morning, says the man who is also president of the union. “This is an act of retaliation against the democratic desire of workers to unionize.”
“To think that I’m going to have to go move boxes tomorrow morning,” he adds, annoyed.
Another worker met by The Journal in the parking lot of the Longueuil warehouse, for his part, described the closures as “very bad news”.
Zaid Alshahed worked as a dispatcher for an Amazon subcontractor. He lost his job during Wednesday’s shutdowns.
Francis Halin
“We all lost our jobs,” said Zaid Alshahed, who worked as a dispatcher for an Amazon subcontractor in Saint-Hubert.
Amazon is hiding
Despite several attempts, Amazon did not want to grant an interview to Journal. The multinational limited itself to sending a written statement, explaining that its decision “was not taken lightly”.
The company also affirmed that affected employees will be able to benefit from “external employment relocation resources” and that they will have “14 weeks of pay following the closure” (emphasis added).
-According to our information, however, not all employees will benefit from this compensation.
A “wild” closure
The end date being circulated is February 8, but the company maintains that things will be done gradually over the next two months.
Such a short delay for a collective dismissal of this magnitude is unusual to say the least. Normally, a notice of dismissal must be sent to the government at least eight weeks in advance when the situation affects between 10 and 99 people and within 16 weeks for a dismissal affecting 300 or more people, it is specified on the Ministry of Employment website.
In this case, everything suggests that Amazon did not respect this deadline, especially since the Legault government said it learned the news of these closures Wednesday morning at the same time as the media.
The Confederation of National Unions (CSN), which has represented workers at the DXT4 warehouse in Laval since May 2024, has also denounced “wild closures”.
“It’s a slap in the face for all workers in Quebec,” protested the president of the CSN, Caroline Senneville, in a press release.
– With the collaboration of Francis Halin
Who are the 1700 people who are losing their jobs?
– Managers
– Employees of delivery centers and sorting centers
– Independent contractors who ensure deliveries
Wage scale for unionized workers: between $20 and $21.50 per hour
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