Amazon has once again come under fire for its decision to close seven facilities in Quebec, Canada.
The e-commerce giant received a letter from more than three dozen shareholders and interested parties about the closures, which have garnered anger from residents in the impacted area, as well as accusations over union busting from labor union Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN).
Amazon has repeatedly said it chose to close the facilities in favor of using small businesses for last-mile package delivery, as it had done in the years before it invested in the province. Steve Kelly, a spokesperson for Amazon, reiterated that sentiment with regard to the letter.
Related Stories
“Following a review of our Quebec operations, we saw that returning to a third-party delivery model supported by local small businesses, similar to what we had until 2020, would allow us to provide the same great service and even more savings to our customers over the long run,” Kelly said in an emailed statement.
But that explanation isn’t robust enough for the letter’s signatories, which include the likes of SHARE, Mercy Investment Services, the Real Estate foundation of British Columbia and others.
In the letter penned to the retail behemoth, the signatories, which represents more than $2 trillion combined assets under management or advice, said they chose to inquire with Amazon because “These closures add to the growing concerns about Amazon’s commitment to respecting employees’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, which in turn creates risk for investors.”
The choice to close the facilities, they noted, directly impacted about 1,900 Amazon workers, but they further project “an additional 2,765 jobs will be lost, primarily workers employed by Amazon’s delivery partner companies.”
Kelly said that the affected workers received severance and noted that Amazon acted legally.
“This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we provided impacted employees a package that includes up to 14 weeks’ pay after facilities closed and transitional benefits, like job placement resources. Throughout this process, we’ve complied and will continue to comply with all applicable federal and provincial laws.”
The shareholders further indicated that they are “concerned about the broader consequences of the company’s sudden announcement,” including a lawsuit filed by CSN and the Canadian government’s promise that it will re-evaluate its contracts with Amazon.
Sarah Couturier-Tanoh, director of shareholder advocacy at SHARE, said that, in the three to four years the group has spent engaging with Amazon, the company has not been particularly transparent about its union and labor practices.
“Investors make investment decisions based on public information, and as investors, we do not have the insider knowledge of what really goes down when it comes to union activities and…Amazon’s decisions regarding its human capital management, [or] its relationship with unions and workers who are attempting to unionize,” Couturier-Tanoh told Sourcing Journal. “It’s very much a black box. And there is not a lot of information that Amazon discloses publicly, in our opinion, on this issue.”
In the letter, the shareholders request that Amazon “detail how [it] plans to engage with the federal government and CSN to resolve this matter and provide remedy for those impacted.” It also requests that Amazon “commit to conducting an independent, third-party assessment of Amazon’s adherence to its stated commitment to workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.”
Couturier-Tanoh said the information such an assessment would yield could help investors make more well-informed decisions about their portfolios, and to interface with Amazon about any issues such an investigation might surface.
“We’re investors; we’re not labor rights specialists. We need that external view that will tell us, ‘Okay, what Amazon has done here is completely compliant,’ or, ‘What Amazon has done here is not, and there are some gaps in the policies that could be improved by doing this and that,’” she said. “We want a clear mapping of the gaps and recommendations from the independent assessor, and obviously an action plan from Amazon to strengthen its approach.”
The shareholders sent the letter in early April, but Couturier-Tanoh said, to her knowledge, they have yet to hear back from Amazon.
