Labour organization occupies Intelcom warehouse in Montreal

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Yesterday afternoon, members of the labour organization Alliance Ouvrière occupied an Intelcom warehouse in Montreal's Anjou neighbourhood. They protested the logistics company's complicity in Amazon's closures in Quebec. Intelcom is a subcontractor for Amazon and is expected to take over most deliveries in the province once Amazon has fully wound down its operations.

The occupation came on the day after Amazon ceased operations at three of its Quebec warehouses, including the warehouse in Laval that was the only one in Canada to successfully unionize.

Alliance Ouvrière spokesperson Benoît Dumais told The North Star, “With the closures and all that, we're organizing demonstrations, we're mobilizing workers, but we also want to show that there are going to be occupations. There's going to be actions like this because we're not going to accept a savage closure like this.”

The occupation lasted for under an hour. Members of Alliance Ouvrière talked with workers, inquired about their work conditions, and shouted slogans like "They cut our jobs, we close their shop!" and "Workers united against Amazon and its disrespect!".

Dumais considered the action a success: “We had a lot of workers who came to ask us questions, we had good discussions with them, a lot of solidarity. Other workers were a little confused, but for sure there were a lot of people who cheered with us.”

As for the reason that Intelcom was targetted by the action, Dumais explained, “It's to put forward the fact that Amazon says it's closing its warehouses in Quebec, but it's not stopping operating in Quebec. It's continuing deliveries.”

Intelcom is headquartered in Montreal that has been operating since 1986. Jean-Sébastien Joly, brother of Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, became the CEO of the company in 2015. The company began working as a subcontractor for Amazon that same year.

Intelcom has been the subject of legal complaints in Ontario for unsafe work conditions for drivers. Last year, its delivery drivers in Okanagan went on strike due to unsafe work conditions.

As Amazon transitions to fully subcontracting their operations in Quebec, Intelcom will likely be taking on the bulk of their orders. Dumais explains, “More and more, Intelcom is becoming a company that only delivers Amazon throughout Quebec, including in Montreal." The North Star's journalists observed hundreds of predominantly Amazon packages on the shelves of the Anjou warehouse.

“We've already seen citizens suing Amazon because they're Prime subscribers, and there's no more 24-hour delivery with the warehouses closing. I think this is going to last for a while. I think Amazon is going to give Intelcom a lot of money and contracts for them to invest into getting more warehouses, then eventually go back to what Amazon had in Quebec in maybe a year or two,” Dumais speculated.

By closing all seven of its Quebec warehouses, Amazon is leaving 4,700 workers without jobs, devastating entire families and communities. Félix Trudeau, president of the Amazon workers' union in Laval, characterized this move as "terrorism against the working class." Dumais expressed a similar sentiment: 

"[Amazon] bypassed labour law. They bypassed organized workers to fall back on subcontractors whose work conditions are just as miserable as working at Amazon. They're really trying to get away with it, and we're sending a message that we're not going to let them get away with it.”

Dumais encourages people to get involved in the burgeoning boycott campaign that has formed in response to the warehouse closures. He directed interested people to the "Here we Boycott Amazon" Facebook and Instagram pages. "There's leafleting, postering going on every day. There are actions, demonstrations going on every week,” he added.

“Then with Alliance Ouvrière too, we're going to do inter-union actions. We're going to rally unions to do actions that are a bit more militant, to protest, to put pressure on the government, to get the government to intervene and respond to workers' demands.” ​