Amazon closes its operations in Quebec and lays off 1,700 workers

Amazon announced Wednesday that it would close all of its warehouses and logistics operations in Quebec, the Canadian province where unions have gained a foothold in one of its facilities, and that it would lay off 1,700 employees.

The closures represent a turnaround from Amazon’s recent investments in the province. The company opened three delivery stations in 2021 and one last year. It also had a small distribution center in Quebec and two warehouses that sorted packages.

In total, the investments totaled about 2 million square feet of operations, according to an estimate by Marc Wulfraat, a Montreal-based warehousing industry consultant who has extensively studied Amazon’s logistics network.

Amazon said it was closing all seven facilities to “provide the same great service and even greater savings to our customers over the long term,” according to a statement from Barbara Agrait, a company spokeswoman.

Amazon will still serve its customers in Quebec by returning to its pre-2020 operating model, when facilities in neighboring provinces prepared packages that were then transported by third-party delivery companies in Quebec.

Amazon’s first union in Canada brought together around 230 warehouse workers in Laval, north of Montreal, after they unionized in May. But the company challenged the unionization efforts in a provincial labor court. He argued that union certification should be revoked because workers signed union cards to signal their support, instead of voting by secret ballot. The court ruled against Amazon in October, just before the peak holiday shopping season.