On April 29, members of the group Workers' Alliance group and the “Here, we boycott Amazon” campaign blockaded the Chabanel post depot in Montreal. The blockade aimed to denounce and disrupt the delivery of Amazon parcels by Canada Post. The demonstrators stayed for a few hours before being removed by police. Their action blocked the unloading of several parcel trucks.
Since the closure of Amazon's seven Quebec warehouses and the layoff of its 4,700 workers, Canada Post has been receiving and delivering a significant number of parcels from the multinational.
Some postal workers report an increase of 40 to 50 Amazon parcels delivered per week since the signing of an agreement between the American multinational and the Crown corporation last March.
During the blockade, in front of the warehouse, exchanges were very friendly between Workers' Alliance members and postal workers. A few postal workers stopped to talk to the former Amazon workers and to invite them to come and work for Canada Post. Members of Workers' Alliance expressed their solidarity with postal workers, who are in a labour dispute with their employer.
Canada Post's 50,000 workers have been without a contract for several months. Their negotiations with the Crown corporation are at a standstill, having had their right to strike taken away by the federal government's intervention in negotiations.
In December 2024, Liberal Employment Minister Steven MacKinnon asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the postal workers back to work, ending a month-long strike.
Inspired by the Amazon model, Canada Post wants to impose major setbacks on its employees. Specifically, it is seeking to reduce guaranteed working hours for postal workers and increase the pace of work in sorting centres.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is putting forward a host of solutions to modernize the services of the state-owned company and provide more services to the public, without affecting the working conditions of its members. These include European-style postal banking, visits to vulnerable seniors, and affordable food deliveries.