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Amazon reportedly closing Quebec fulfillment facilities

Amazon fulfillment
Amazon is reportedly closing fulfillment centers in Quebec.

Media reports indicate Amazon is changing how it conducts deliveries in Quebec.

According to a report from Bloomberg posted in the Seattle Times, Amazon plans to shutter seven corporate fulfillment hubs located in the Canadian province, which will result in the elimination of about 1,900 full-time and temporary jobs, in the next several weeks.

Amazon will reportedly shift delivery of online orders from its site in Quebec from those facilities using its own infrastructure to hosted third-party services, such as Canadian provider Intelcom Courrier Canada.

Roughly 300 employees at one of the seven sites slated for closing, a facility located in the city of Laval, had been negotiating via the Federation of National Trade Unions since July 2024 to establish a collective bargaining agreement.

However, an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg that its decision to close down its Quebec facilities is unrelated to any unionization efforts.

"Following a recent review of our Quebec operations, we’ve seen that returning to a third-party delivery model supported by local small businesses, similar to what we had until 2020, will allow us to provide the same great service,” the Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. 

The spokesperson also said that Amazon does not intend to close any other warehouses and that the decision to shut down the Quebec facilities was not “made lightly.” Amazon said it will offer employees affected by the closures up to 14 weeks of severance pay, as well as transitional assistance such as help with job placement.

Bloomberg quoted a news release from the Federation of National Trade Unions disputing Amazon’s claim that the closures are unrelated to union activities and called them a component of an “anti-union campaign.” Read more coverage here.

Chain Store Age has reached to Amazon for direct comment.

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Amazon lays off thousands since 2023

Amazon has engaged in substantial job reductions in the past two years, most recently reducing 200 jobs across its North America stores division.

The company also eliminated hundreds of positions across several divisions of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit in April 2024, and reportedly reduced headcount by less than 5% at the unit responsible for its Buy with Prime service in January 2024. 

That same month, the company eliminated several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization, and also laid off “just over 500 people” across its Twitch gaming streaming platform.

Earlier layoffs include November 2023 reductions in Amazon’s Alexa workforce, as well as an April 2023 decision to eliminate positions in AWS in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica. 

And in a March 2023 memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company intended to eliminate about 9,000 workers. In the memo, Jassy explained that after hiring more than 450,000 people in the U.S. between the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 and September 2021, the company needs to reassess its staffing levels.

[READ MORE: Amazon to enact new round of 9,000 job cuts]

At the beginning of 2023, Amazon said it planned to eliminate just over 18,000 roles in 2023, with the majority of cuts in its Amazon Stores and PXT organizations. 

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