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After announcing the shutdown of its operations in Quebec, Amazon announced that it would be using subcontractors to side step the rising tide of unionism that had gripped its warehouses. The multinational has chosen Intelcom to pick up the slack in the province. This company has a history of conflicts of interest, dangerous working conditions, anti-unionism and late deliveries.
Intelcom, also known as Dragonfly Shipping in English Canada and internationally, was founded in 1986 as a small courier company. By 2005, it was 50% owned by Canada Post, accounting for around 7% of its logistics revenue.
A major shift began when Jean-Sébastien Joly, brother of Liberal Minister Mélanie Joly and Intelcom CEO since 2015, bought the company in 2017 with the support of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), which remains one of the company's main shareholders to this day.
Deplorable working conditions
With the support of the CDPQ, renowned for its contempt for workers, Minister Joly's brother embarked on a major expansion of the company's activities. In just a few years, the company built sorting centres in Montreal and Toronto, representing investments of $31 million. Over the same period, the number of employees rose from 300 to 2,500, in addition to 3,000 “freelancers” who are, in reality, precarious workers.
In 2022, these "independent" delivery drivers were paid between $1.60 and $3.00 per parcel delivered. If we subtract the cost of fuel, most of them earn less than the minimum wage.
What's more, Intelcom offers no insurance for vehicles or drivers. This means that vehicle maintenance is the responsibility of the delivery drivers, and the workers also bear the burden of health problems incurred by long hours of sitting behind the wheel.
In Ontario, Dragonfly, an Intelcom subsidiary, has faced several court cases for failing to provide safe working conditions for its workers. In 2024, a hundred non-unionized delivery drivers in British Columbia went on strike to protest unbearable working hours and conditions.
Subcontractors as strikebreakers
Job insecurity is widespread in the logistics and parcel delivery industries. At Amazon, it's one of the main reasons why workers at the DXT4 warehouse in Laval formed a union. Warehouse workers were complaining of repeated and easily preventable workplace accidents.
It was also the attempt to extend this kind of practice to the public sector that prompted Canada Post workers to go on strike last year. The Crown corporation wants to reduce the number of hours guaranteed to its postal workers and force them to carry more on longer routes.
During the postal strike, Canada Post resorted to strikebreakers, using subcontractors such as Purolator and Intelcom to ship parcels that were supposed to be handled by the strikers.
A major conflict of interest
Until 2022, no measures to prevent conflicts of interest prevented Mélanie Joly from giving preferential treatment to her brother's company. Three years ago, an anti-conflict of interest "screen" was put in place to ensure that the Minister did not favour her brother's company.
On the website of the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, we read that the "screen" is administered by Joly's deputy minister and chief of staff must "ensure that I am neither made aware of nor a participant in any discussions or decision-making processes pertaining to the private interests of my brother and/or his company, unless the interest in the decision or matter is one of general application.”
Bad service for customers
This kind of attack on workers, led by Amazon and Intelcom, is not only harmful to workers, but also to those who order parcels.
Delivery delays and errors are commonplace for both Intelcom and Amazon. By 2022, Quebec's consumer protection bureau had received seven complaints against Intelcom. The majority of these complaints were also directed at Amazon.
The recent closures of Amazon warehouses in Quebec and the takeover of operations by Intelcom have resulted in much longer-than-normal delivery times. Amazon Prime subscribers have filed a class action against the multinational.