Amazon Claims to Be Defending “Public Interest”

In 2024, Amazon sought to invalidate the union certification at its Laval warehouse by claiming it was defending the interests of its workers. The company lost its case before the Administrative Labour Tribunal. This time, Amazon is appealing the decision handed down two years ago in the name of “public interest.”

On October 1, Superior Court judge Catherine Piché heard arguments from Amazon and the opposing parties—the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs d’Amazon Laval (STTAL) and the Attorney General of Quebec. The international delivery giant wants the court to overturn a decision handed down by the Tribunal in October 2024 that prevented it from engaging in constitutional debates regarding Quebec’s Labour Code. It should be noted that the unionized warehouse, like all of the company’s other warehouses in Quebec, has been closed since the winter of 2025.

Represented by attorney Frédéric Massé, Amazon believes that Section 28 of the Quebec Labour Code violates the freedom of association of workers at its warehouses.

This section stipulates that the union is certified as soon as more than 50% of the workers have signed their adhesion cards and paid the mandatory $2 fee. According to Massé’s arguments on Thursday morning, the company was wronged by the Administrative Tribunal in this instance. “What the Tribunal did, literally, was prevent our client [Amazon] from being heard on the constitutional issue.”

Amazon Defends Our Fundamental Rights

The judge who issued the ruling based her decision on Section 32 of the Labour Code, which excludes the employer from the process of determining whether a union is representative of its employees. Amazon’s legal team argues, however, that it is not as an employer, but as a defender of the public interest that the company’s attorneys seek to have the Quebec law invalidated.

Frédéric Massé thus argued that Amazon – being an employer that must navigate multiple labour law regimes around the world – should be able to have a say in how a union is certified. The company, he argued, wants to ensure that “the system established by the legislature [the Labour Code] accurately reflects the fundamental rights” of the public.

Félix Trudeau, president of the STTAL, was present for the hearing. When asked by The North Star about his reaction upon hearing that Amazon claimed to be defending the public interest, he burst out laughing. “What public is served by Amazon’s infernal machine?” he answered. Noting that Amazon laid off nearly 5,000 workers in Quebec last year, he added that, in his view, “Amazon is putting on a show. The only freedom it defends is the freedom to crush us to make a profit.”

“Amazon’s real interest is its own interest”

The defense argued that Amazon was attempting to portray itself as a defender—sometimes of its employees, sometimes of the public interest—in order to “get in through the back door” and defend its interests as an employer. “Amazon’s real interest is its own interest”, asserted Ioanna Egarhos, who represents the union in court.

According to her, the company wants to weaken the Labour Code. In May 2024, Amazon demanded that the current union organizing process be replaced by a vote, even after a majority of warehouse workers had joined the union. “It certainly doesn’t suit employers for the process to be quick, because that doesn’t give them time to do their job of preventing unionization,” Egarhos argued before Judge Piché.

The attorney further argued that the multinational is – in a sense – taking this legal action “on behalf of all employers.” Perhaps this is the so-called “public interest” that Amazon claims to defend.