Amazon set to make 1st offer to unionized workers in Laval, Que., after 6 months of talks
CBC
After six months of negotiations with its only unionized workforce in Canada, based in Laval, Que., Amazon is set to make its first offer next month in a bid to reach a collective agreement.
"Workers are not asking for something that is overboard," said employee Hillary Kibos. "Amazon makes a lot of money."
Workers like Kibos are demanding $26 per hour, a $6 increase. Kibos works at the DXT4 warehouse, located in the suburb north of Montreal. Workers there held a demonstration Monday. Though there was no work stoppage, employees like Kibos held signs, waved flags and marched around the warehouse to show solidarity during the ongoing talks.
After a two-year effort, workers there unionized with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in May.
At the time, Caroline Senneville, the CSN's president, said employees were dissatisfied with what they described as a hectic work pace, low wages and inadequate health and safety measures.
The company challenged the certification process, but Quebec's labour tribunal dismissed the case.
"They tried to stop this before it started, but we showed them we really wanted this," said employee Musa Gaku.
Barry Eidlin, a sociology professor at McGill University, said reaching an agreement could inspire workers at other Amazon locations to do the same.
"Just that one facility is not going to make a dent, but it's a foothold that can build something bigger," said Eidlin.
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 this year. It has facilities and thousands of employees across Canada. There are about 200 workers at its Laval warehouse.
If workers refuse to accept Amazon's upcoming offer, the case could go to arbitration.
Quebec offers first-contract arbitration which helps newly unionized workplaces secure their first collective agreement if negotiations between the employer and the union reach an impasse. This is not something the US company faces in the US, Eidlin noted.
"So that is something the Laval workers have that Amazon workers in other jurisdictions do not," he said, but the employees don't have the bargaining power they would have if there was a much larger group of warehouses that were organized.
"But that does help to even the scales slightly more in the workers' favour even if they don't necessarily have a lot of bargaining power on their own."
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