Workers Unionize at Delta BC Amazon Warehouse

Workers at Amazon's YVR2 Fulfillment Centre in Delta, B.C. have won union certification following a ruling of the BC Labour Relations Board (BCLRB). The ruling upheld an unfair labour practices complaint brought by the workers' union, Unifor, and ordered remedial certification of the warehouse. 

The decision also says that "Amazon hired unnecessary employees, which had both the impact and purpose of impeding the union's organizing drive" and that "Amazon breached the Code through its pervasive anti-union campaign".

A drawn-out campaign

Unifor's organizing drive at the YVR2 facility started in June 2023, and in April 2024, the union applied to the BCLRB, believing they had met the threshold of 55% of workers signing a union card, which would mean automatic certification of the union. However, the union withdrew this initial application because "the number of workers reported by Amazon [was] suspiciously high". The union brought a second application in May 2024, and a vote was held that month, but the vote was sealed when the union brought its unfair labour practices complaint. 

During the hearing, YVR2 workers testified that Amazon went on a massive hiring spree in the five months leading up to the certification vote, increasing the number of employees at the warehouse by 32% in an effort to dilute the union drive. Workers also testified that they were subjected to a pervasive anti-union campaign. One of the workers, Kirandeep Kaur, said that anti-union propaganda was displayed throughout the facility on TVs, posters and table toppers in the lunchroom. Kaur and another worker, Kimberley Kodama, both corroborated that they were subjected to one-on-one meetings with managers who asked them about the union's activities. 

Kodama also described captive-audience meetings and a 'Q&A' session on unions in the warehouse breakroom. When she told the manager giving the session that she shouldn't have to sit through this on her unpaid break time, she was told she could use another smaller breakroom. 

Kaur, Kodama and other workers asserted that Amazon attempted to induce workers not to sign a union card by easing up on productivity policies and providing prizes and food not usually available to employees. 

Unifor Reacts

Speaking to North Star, Unifor's director of organizing, Justin Gniposky, stressed the solidness of the shop floor organizing drive in achieving the BCLRB win.

"The most important part of it was hearing from the workers who tesitified and stood up to their employer", said Gniposky. He explains that there were two key issues: first, the company had ramped up hiring in an effort to dilute votes, which they were able to prove with internal communications and documents obtained through discolure; and second, that the employer had crossed a line in their anti-union efforts by involving management inappropriately. "The workers were the ones who needed to share that story, and only they could bring it with that level of credibility.  It's one thing to write it down and another to hear from those who are experiencing it firsthand."

"There's a lot of roles in an organizing campaign, and a lot of that is overcoming fear. Fear of retaliation in some way, job loss and those kind of things, and those folks put the interest of the whole ahead of the fear."

Gniposky noted that this win has national and potentially global implications, as in the past Amazon has refused to collectively bargain with unions like with the Amazon Labour Union at the JFK8 warehouse in New York, who never succeeded at securing a collective agreement. In another case, they simply shut down all their warehouses, as they did in Quebec when workers at the Laval DXT4 warehouse certified with the CSN union.

Like Quebec, British Columbia has legislation that dictates that Amazon must bargain 'in good faith' with the union or a first contract could be imposed by the BCLRB. 

Gniposky further emphasized the significance of this achievement, noting that several major post-pandemic victories were secured at companies like Walmart, Honda, Toyota—workplaces they had long struggled to unionize. 

"It's truly like a beacon of hope for workers, and it's critical for us in our union, but I think it's critical for the labour movement in Canada, and even across the globe. There's a handful of these wins across the entire globe. Right now, it's the only one in Canada, sadly, but we're going to work hard make sure it's not the only one, and we're partnering with any union who wants to work with any Amazon workers."

A Fight that Continues

Amazon has already declared its intention to appeal the ruling. Gniposky says he's not surprised.

"They're doing this to scare workers, and it doesn't change the fact that we're certified. The next step for us is to prepare for bargaining. We're certified, and whether Amazon appeals or not or tries any other tactic, that doesn't change the fact that these workers have a union certification now and a right to go to bargaining. So, our immediate priority is to be out there and communicate with the workers and to start to get bargaining priorities in line and elect a bargaining committee and get to the bargaining table."

"We're not naive," he continued. "They'll try to fight this, but we're going to use every single tool—in the B.C. legislation, in the political realm, in the organizing realm, in the other campaigns we have going on—to make sure that they are forced to the table to bargain the first collective agreement in North America."