TORONTO: Amazon Facilities in Canada Face Campaigns to Organise Workers’ Union

TORONTO: The Teamsters workers’ union
has launched campaigns to organise employees in at least nine Canadian
facilities of US e-commerce company Amazon, according to Reuters
interviews with union officials.

The
influential union took the first step earlier this week to organise employees
at one of Amazon’s Canadian facilities,
and the interviews reveal it is widening such efforts across the country, where
the e-commerce company employs about 25,000 workers and plans to add 15,000
more.

The
campaigns could be seen as a bet by the Teamsters that early success unionising
employees in a more labour-friendly market such as Canada will inspire similar
results south of the border, where Amazon has so far fended off unionisation
attempts.

In the
latest challenge to Amazon’s anti-unionisation stance, Edmonton, Alberta’s
Teamsters Local Union 362 filed for a vote on union representation at a company
fulfillment centre in nearby Nisku late on Monday.

Interviews
with Teamsters units in other cities and provinces show that the union’s
efforts stretch from the Pacific coastal province of British Columbia to the
Canadian economic heartland in southern Ontario.

The
Teamsters’ Edmonton unit says it has enough signed cards calling for a union to
meet the 40 percent threshold to require a vote. Two of the union’s units
in Ontario and one in Alberta have confirmed they are signing membership cards
with Amazon workers.

And two
of the five units that confirmed to Reuters that they are organising said they
are running campaigns at multiple sites, bringing the total Amazon facilities
involved in some level of organising to at least nine.

“Any
locals that have an Amazon facility in their area are doing an organising
campaign,” Jim Killey, an organiser with Teamsters Local 879 near Hamilton,
Ontario, told Reuters.

Amazon
did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier in the week
Amazon Canada spokesperson Dave Bauer said in an emailed statement: “As a
company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees.”

Unions
would prevent the company from changing quickly to meet employees’ needs and
represent “the voices of a select few,” he added.

The
Teamsters say they can help the workers win better wages and benefits, such as
leaves of absence.

Sleeping
in their cars

Unionisation
votes in Canada do not have any direct bearing on the United States, but they
could raise enthusiasm, said John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco
State University.

“Organising
at a place like Amazon requires workers to take a certain amount of risk,”
Logan said. “If they can look to other places and see that that risk has paid
off for other workers, then they are far more inclined to do it themselves.”

Union
members are going to great lengths to connect with Amazon workers, sleeping in their
cars to catch the employees after graveyard shifts and forging ties at local
churches.

The
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has more than a million members
in the United States and Canada, has made organising Amazon a top priority,
describing it as an “existential threat.”

Amazon
does not have any unionised facilities in North America. The Teamsters is one
of a handful of unions trying to undertake the daunting task of organizing its
vast, high-churn workforce.

Earlier
this year, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) lost a vote
to organise workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by a more than two-to-one margin.
Amazon pushed hard against unionization, and the result is being disputed.

The
Teamsters have indicated they will not seek to hold such votes in the United
States any time soon, arguing the process is unfairly tilted toward employers.

But in
Canada, where labour laws are more favourable, the Teamsters see an opportunity
to go straight to the ballot box.

The
Teamsters’ Killey said his chapter is campaigning at Amazon facilities in
Milton, Cambridge and Kitchener, all traditionally working-class towns just
west of Toronto, Canada’s most populous city.

“Where
we see there is a lot of support, we’re going to go full steam ahead,”
said Christopher Monette, spokesperson for Teamsters Canada.

Jason
Sweet, president of Teamsters Local 419 in Ontario, said his unit has begun
signing cards with workers in the greater Toronto area and has formed WhatsApp groups with Amazon workers to
keep them abreast of the union’s efforts, delivering updates every 48 hours or
so. “We are trying to build relationships from the inside,” he said.

In
British Columbia, Teamsters Local 31 President Stan Hennessy said potential
members have been receptive.

“It’s our
hope that we can help these workers,” he said. “They certainly can use some
help.”