Amazon’s recent announcement that it will close all seven of its Quebec facilities and lay off over 1,700 employees has not been well received. The mega-company insists the decision is about delivering efficient and cost-effective services and has nothing to do with a growing unionization movement in the province. It’s hard to imagine how cutting jobs will benefit service, while stories of Amazon’s use of anti-union tactics and legal challenges to unionization efforts by employees are well-known. The only unionized Amazon warehouse in Canada is in Laval. The optics are not good.
The warehouse in Coteau-du-Lac is also slated to close, after having been open for just over three years. The 520,000-square-foot sorting centre is located on land belonging to real estate developer Broccolini. It includes 124 loading docks and parking for 283 trailers. Most of the facility’s 350 employees sort packages by postal code before they are transferred to partner carriers for delivery. The need for such infrastructure certainly suggests Amazon’s popularity in the province had not dipped before the company’s announcement.
Salaberry-Suroît MP Claude DeBellefeuille has expressed her sympathies for the families of workers at the Coteau-du-Lac plant. In a brief statement, she referred to the move by Amazon as deplorable, while suggesting such efforts to counter collective representation are very worrisome for the future of labour relations in Quebec. She is encouraging people to buy local, while the online calls for a boycott grow.
Another strong reaction to Amazon’s plans has come from the Fédération de l’UPA de la Montérégie, which deplored the loss of agricultural land. “Sixty-seven hectares of high-quality farmland have been sacrificed for a fleeting economic opportunity,” chided Federation president Jérémie Letellier. The UPA is now imploring the provincial government to stop what has become an unfortunate practice of carving up agricultural land and shopping it off to developers.
The municipality of Coteau-du-Lac has said it does not foresee any fiscal impact from the closure of the warehouse, and according to Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges (DEV) a labour shortage in the region means there are jobs available to the 350 people now looking for work. The regional economy, it seems, can withstand this blow. The agricultural land that was lost, however, will never be replaced – and it’s certainly not something that can be bought online.
Sarah Rennie