I worked for six weeks at Amazon, where productivity is more important than employee well-being

In 2020, as part of an investigation, our journalist Dominique Cambron-Goulet worked for six weeks at Amazon, where he witnessed the very difficult working conditions denounced by employees who now want to unionize. To this day, this is an unprecedented journalistic approach in Quebec. He tells us about his experience.

Sorting an item every ten seconds, packing 67 packages per hour, 10 hours per day, all while being constantly monitored and monitored: this is what the life of an “Amazonian” looks like in one of the Quebec warehouses that will soon close their doors.

When I worked at the YUL 2 center in Lachine, the American giant had just opened its first warehouse in Quebec.

There I witnessed the reasons why those whom Amazon calls amazonians wanted to form a workers’ union to improve their working conditions. A momentum that led to the recognition last May of a union in a distribution center in Laval, only the second of its kind in North America.

Dictated tasks

Amazon warehouses are veritable temples of productivity, which sometimes give the impression of living in novels The best of worlds by Aldous Huxley or 1984 de George Orwell.

Connected to my workstation, I had tasks dictated to me one after the other with the main company being autonomous vehicles moving thousands of products intended for consumers.

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“Take the pack of erasers from locker M4, put it on tablet X47W4, take the doll from locker B2, put it on tablet X47W5, take an A5 size box, pack the products from tablet X47W4, take a B1 size box, packs the tablet products X48W7″, etc.

Nothing to evaluate, nothing to think about, all tasks are prescribed, determined, calculated. The computer even told me when I needed to use a stepladder to pick up an object from a height and cut the tape to the right size according to the box provided.

Scrutinized at all times

I was also filmed at all times by surveillance cameras, I learned on site. A practice already deemed too invasive by the Administrative Labor Court.

For a salary of $17 per hour, in 2020, the performance objectives were very high, even impossible to achieve without putting an end to my desire to urinate.

When I was gathering products from orders, I had to remove an item every 10 seconds, whether it was a bar of chocolate or a box of 1500 sheets of paper. When I was packing, it was 67 packages an hour.

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On my screen, my performance was displayed in real time to remind me if I was taking too long.

Data obviously accessible to my managers who saw in real time a ranking of amazonians.

If I had been among the most efficient, perhaps I could have become a mentor to the new ones, or obtain the real Holy Grail, a blue badge, the one which confers tenure and real social benefits.

The company assures for its part that it respects all Quebec laws and that “nothing is more important than the health and safety of our teams”.

But injuries are legion at Amazon, as many American media have already reported. And it’s no wonder.

The employees, who are mostly newcomers here, need to keep their jobs to survive and are exhausted at the task.

They also limit absences, which, in a points system specific to Amazon, can prevent the payment of bonuses and obviously restrict access to the famous blue badge.