Workers and protesters assemble on Amazon’s doorstep in Laval

Braving intensely cold weather, more than a hundred people showed up at the gates of Amazon's DXT4 warehouse in Laval on Wednesday, February 5. The demonstrators assembled to show their support for the thousands of workers who are losing their jobs due to the multinational's highly criticized decision to close all of their warehouses in Quebec. 

The protest was organized by the STTAL–CSN, which represents the workers, and the "Here We Boycott Amazon" movement. A variety of unions and community organizations in Quebec, along with Amazon workers from different warehouses around the Greater Montréal area, participated in the event.

The energy outside of the warehouse was electric. Chants of "Boycott Amazon!" mixed with the honking of horns from vehicles passing by as the crowd marched around the warehouse. The protesters marched to the employee entrance where André-Philippe Doré—a spokesperson for the "Here We Boycott Amazon" movement gave a speech. 

Doré later told The North Star about the significance of holding this action outside of the DXT4 warehouse: 

"We're here because DXT4 is the first unionized Amazon warehouse in Canada. It's also the first warehouse in North America to have a certified majority, a direct union without a vote. It's a workplace that has experienced a historic unionization, and it's because of this that they decided to close all warehouses in Quebec. Above all, it's symbolic to do this in front of DXT4. They were the first to rock Bezos's boat."

Felix Trudeau, president of the STTAL–CSN, agrees that the unionization drive was the reason for the province-wide closures. 

"We're not stupid! We understand that Amazon is doing this because it wants to break the workers' movement for democracy," Trudeau told the assembled crowd. "We understand that Amazon is doing this because it's attacking the Quebecois people throughout Quebec, trying to tell us how to live, what our laws are, and how it wants to crush us. Let's not kid ourselves. The next few months won't be easy, but goddamnit, we're not going to roll over!"

Trudeau added, "A company can't come to Quebec and injure hundreds of workers over four or five years and then run off like a bandit with our money without fair compensation for the workers. Right now, we know that Amazon's direct workers will get 10 to 14 weeks of compensation. We have no idea what's going on with subcontractors. As far as we know, the subcontractors are getting nothing when they're laid off. We've got to fight for them!"

4,500 workers are affected by the closures, including over 1,700 warehouse employees, as well as the drivers, maintenance workers, technicians, and subcontractors that work for Amazon indirectly. 

"Not only are we asking for compensation, we're asking for consequences for Amazon." Trudeau exclaimed, to cheers and applause.

"We want there to be no more business with Amazon in Quebec. Not only the contracts, but the subsidies, preferential rates for electricity from our money, the money of the working class. We want the federal government and provincial governments to cut their ties with Amazon, and we want the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been given to the multinational to be returned to the people."

The "Here We Boycott Amazon" campaign has been asking Quebecers to divest from Amazon's services. But Doré believes that the boycott movement needs to be taken further in order to support the workers fighting for better conditions inside the warehouses.

"I think the two struggles fit together," he says. "That's why we need people to go on the picket lines, which will be taking place from February 9 to 12 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. [at the DXT4 warehouse]. Having people show up there in solidarity is a step further than a boycott. In other words, all of us together, both inside the workplace and outside, are fighting on the same side for the same goal."