MONTREAL — The organized labour federation behind the successful unionization of an Amazon distribution centre in Quebec is actively campaigning to unionize the company’s six other facilities in the province.

The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) is leading unionization efforts at Amazon’s Montreal-area YUL2, YUL5, YUL9, DYT4, DXT5 and DXT6 facilities, CSN spokesperson François L’Écuyer told The Logic. The CSN unionized 200 staff at Amazon’s DXT4 facility in May—the first successful effort to organize workers at the online shopping giant in Canada.

Amazon is negotiating a collective agreement with DXT4 workers even as it says it will continue to challenge the constitutionality of the law. In June, Amazon contested the CSN’s DXT4 campaign, arguing Quebec’s labour laws discriminated against workers who didn’t wish to unionize. The province’s labour board rejected Amazon’s challenge last week.

Meetings between Amazon and the CSN haven’t gone smoothly. The union requested a government conciliator to be present after two meetings, “because we were disappointed by the lack of seriousness by the employer at the table,” said L’Écuyer. 

Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said the company was disappointed with the CSN’s decision to file for conciliation. Nevertheless, the union said it may ask for binding arbitration, in which a third party decides the terms of a collective agreement, should it deem it necessary, CSN president Carole Senneville told The Logic.

Quebec is generally considered one of the more union-friendly jurisdictions in North America. Unions are certified once a majority of workers sign cards, without a follow-up certification vote. In the past, Amazon has used the time between card signing and a vote to campaign against unionization—something the company can’t do in Quebec. The province’s unionization rate is a third higher than the Canadian average.

The CSN’s unionization drive at Amazon’s DXT4 facility began about six months before the successful May vote, with workers seeking higher wages and better supervision of workplace injuries, as well as an end to what it says is Amazon’s practice of over-hiring and subsequent layoffs.

Amazon has argued that the lack of secret-ballot voting, which employers favour because they typically result in fewer certifications, rendered the CSN’s unionization effort unlawful. In an October 22 decision dismissing the company’s challenge, Quebec labour board judge Irène Zaïkoff said Amazon, as the employer, “cannot invoke freedom of association on behalf of its employees.”

While unions have been successful in several Amazon facilities across Europe, they have struggled to gain a foothold in North America. Attempts to organize Canadian Amazon workers in British Columbia and Alberta, home to the company’s largest fulfillment centre in the country, have fallen short. A successful 2022 campaign at the Amazon facility in Staten Island, N.Y., remains stalled amid court battles and internal strife. The company has operated in Canada since 2002, and employs more than 41,000 full- and part-time employees in the country.