Workers Denounce Government Inaction After Mass Layoffs

As Amazon rakes in colossal profits during its annual Prime Day promotion, laid-off workers rallied in front of Quebec’s Employment Ministry with a message for the provincial government: it’s long past time to stand up for workers. 

The July 8 rally in Montreal included speeches from members of the Immigrant Workers Centre, the Laval Amazon Workers Union, and Mouvement Action-Chômage. They called on the Quebec government to meet with the affected workers and take action to hold Amazon accountable. 

Former Amazon workers and current employees of Intelcom, Amazon’s main subcontractor in the province, also addressed the media. They say that Amazon has not met its obligations to provide severance pay and retraining after it suddenly closed its warehouses in the province in January, leaving more than 4,000 people jobless. 

A spokesperson for Amazon said that they are “working with a trusted human resources firm that provides reclassification services for our former employees in Quebec.” Mostafa Henaway, an organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre, pointed out that the company in question, LHH, does not operate in Quebec

According to Felix Trudeau, president of the Laval Amazon Workers Union, some workers are still missing up to 10 weeks of severance pay required by law. A complaint is also underway at the province’s workplace norms regulator to expand protections to subcontracted employees such as drivers and security guards. These workers received nothing when their contracts were terminated.

Andy Remarais, a former worker at Amazon’s YUL5 warehouse in Longueuil, described the frustrating experience of trying to get a response from the government:

“We tried sending emails. We tried to see them, to meet with them, to arrange a meeting with the Minister of Labour. We never received a response. We had an official invitation to go to the National Assembly. We were barred from entering. So we couldn't claim our rights or ask for help from the government.”*

He called on the government to withdraw its subsidies for the American multinational and use its resources to instead help workers. 

“The current situation is that it's hard to find a job in Montreal. The economic situation is quite difficult,” says Trudeau. “Everyone is really disappointed with the government's response, or rather the total lack of action on the part of the government. We really felt that the Quebec government abandoned us after the layoffs.”