Teamsters Canada has filed an application for a union vote at Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Nisku, Alta., marking the union’s first official salvo in its campaign to unionize the company’s workers across the country. Teamsters representatives visited several sites in July as part of its campaign to organize Amazon workers in both the U.S. and Canada.

“We didn’t choose Nisku; Nisku chose us,” Teamsters Canada spokesperson Chris Monette told The Logic, adding that “hundreds of workers” at the facility signed a petition requesting a unionization vote. “Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees,” wrote Amazon spokesperson Dave Bauer in an emailed statement.

Here are the key numbers you need to know about the unionization effort: 

40: The minimum percentage of workers required to apply for certification, according to the Alberta Labour Relations Board. There are over 600 workers at the one-million-square-foot warehouse, which opened in August 2020. “We feel we’re well over the 40 per cent requirement to be awarded a vote,” said Richard Brown, president of Teamsters Canada Local 362, which filed the application.

50%+1 employee: The amount of employees who must vote in favour in order for a union to be certified. 

13: The number of working days after the date of application that the Alberta Labour Relations Board will “usually” schedule hearings. It is a comparatively accelerated timeline than in the U.S., where the process can take months. “There are far fewer opportunities for Amazon to put its thumb on the scale,” said McGill University assistant sociology professor Barry Eidlin. 

25.7: The percentage of Alberta’s workforce that was unionized as of 2020—the lowest rate in the country. It is nonetheless more than triple Alabama’s rate, the site of a previous (and ultimately failed) attempt to unionize Amazon workers in Bessemer. “The terrain on which this election is being fought is vastly different from what we saw in Alabama,” Eidlin said.

6,300: The number of Alberta workers represented by Teamsters Local 362, according to Brown. Overall, the union represents 125,000 workers in Canada.

15,000: The number of warehouse workers Amazon Canada plans to hire. Yet the company also rescinded a productivity bonus worth as much as eight per cent of workers’ monthly salary, according to an internal memo obtained by the Toronto Star. “The Alabama drive put this whole issue of organizing Amazon in the public view in a much bigger way,” said Eidlin. The Teamsters’ Canadian effort, he added, “could be breaching the dam.”