Amazon is quitting Quebec to ‘shock and awe’ workers worldwide

After failing to thwart a historic unionization drive in Quebec, Amazon is now shuttering all its operations in the province, laying off nearly 2,000 workers. 

The move is a brazen attempt to punish workers in the province who achieved what many thought impossible. In May 2024, about 300 workers at the Laval warehouse successfully unionized—a historic first in Canada—despite facing two years of anti-union tactics, intimidation, and surveillance. What’s more, they were set to become the first Amazon workers anywhere in the world to secure a collective agreement.

For Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, this move isn’t just about crushing the Laval workers and their union; it’s a direct assault on the entire global working class. It marks a growing offensive by corporations and the capitalist class who are trying to put workers in their place with austerity measures and attacks on labour organizing. 

Here in Quebec, Amazon’s move leaves 1,700 workers—many of them immigrants, international students, and people with families—jobless in the midst of rising unemployment and a worsening cost-of-living crisis. 

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