Above photo: The BC Labour Relations Board found Amazon hired new workers and launched an anti-union campaign in the Delta distribution centre. Ethan Cairns, the Canadian Press.
BC’s labour board grants automatic certification because of an unfair anti-union campaign.
Amazon plans to fight.
Amazon workers in Delta have won the battle to unionize after the BC Labour Relations Board found the company committed “serious” offences to try and block an organizing drive.
The board ruled Thursday that Unifor Local 114 should be automatically certified because the company interfered with employees’ efforts to exercise their rights.
The union accused Amazon of bringing on dozens of new hires at the Delta distribution centre to interfere with a union drive and intimidating employees with an anti-union drive.
Amazon denied the allegations and says it will fight the decision.
But board vice-chair Gurleen Sahota’s decision sided with the union on both issues and awarded automatic certification for about 800 employees as a remedy.
“I find Amazon’s conduct is serious such that it would be difficult to ascertain the true wishes of the employees,” Sahota said. “No other remedy would adequately address the consequences of Amazon’s conduct or provide sufficient deterrence.”
The certification brings a hard-fought union drive to an end and makes the Delta warehouse the only unionized Amazon location in Canada. The union says the certification is a big win against a notoriously difficult employer and it’s ready to head to collective bargaining.
“The whole team’s excited,” Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director. “We think we’re on the cusp of achieving change for these workers at Amazon who so richly deserve it for the hard work they do.”
But Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for Amazon, said it plans to fight the decision.
“This decision is wrong on the facts and the law,” Nantel said in an email. “It goes against what our employees have said they want and deprives them of their right to make an informed decision.”
Unifor launched its drive to organize the warehouse in June 2023, according to the decision. By 2024 the union believed it had signed up enough employees to win unionization.
In B.C., if at least 55 per cent of a possible bargaining unit signs union cards, the board will certify the union without a vote. If at least 45 per cent sign cards, the board will order a vote on unionizing.
The union believed the warehouse had about 575 employees and applied for union certification in April 2024, but withdrew the application when Amazon said 640 employees worked there.
The union tried a second time that May.
That’s when Amazon started to bring on a flood of new workers. Between March and June 2024, according to the decision, 148 new employees started at the Delta warehouse.
That raised the number of signatures the union needed.
Amazon argued the hiring was planned before Unifor applied to unionize and that there was enough work to justify its increase in hiring.
But after considering Amazon’s hiring plans, the board found the company hired 58 more employees than anticipated.
The board heard an employee testify that Amazon’s busiest season is between August and December, not during the spring.
It also examined communications on an internal messaging platform Slack that shows managers were trying to increase hiring during that time.
Sahota wrote in his decision that the Slack messages and the fact that hiring did not follow the same pattern as previous years made it clear the company was hiring employees in an effort to thwart the union.
“I am not persuaded that there was a clear need for increased staff, or that there was sufficient work to justify the hiring,” Sahota said. “In fact, I find that the timing and extent of hiring was designed to defeat the union’s organizing drive.”
The union also alleged Amazon launched an anti-union campaign that included increased manager presence at the warehouse, questioning employees about union support and displaying anti-union sentiments on posters and screens around the warehouse.
The union said Amazon managers from outside B.C. and Canada started showing up to the warehouse every day and asking employees about their support for the union.
“These teams and managers were attempting to determine the levels of union support and to engage employees in discussions about the union,” Sahota said.
The board found that managers even phoned employees who were on leave during the campaign for “wellness checks,” during which union activities were discussed.
He added that messaging posted around the warehouse suggested it might be better not to sign a union card.
The board examined examples of posters, displays and other communications that said “Unions charge dues,” “Collective bargaining takes time,” and “Wages and benefits must be negotiated between the union and Amazon. Your wages could be the same, more, or less than you have today.”
Amazon told the board these messages were intended to simply provide employees facts about bargaining.
But while Sahota agreed Amazon’s conduct may have been defensible under the labour code, the campaign “would make it impossible for the board to determine the true wishes of the employees.”
“Amazon’s conduct cannot be considered in isolation,” he said. “Rather, I need to consider Amazon’s conduct as a whole, in the context of a certification drive, and in the context of a vulnerable workplace.”
Sahota decided Amazon’s conduct was intimidating, coercive and motivated by anti-union animus.
“We are thrilled for these workers,” Unifor’s McGarrigle said. “This is the most significant organizing victory in Canadian history at Amazon.”
Last year, after workers at a Quebec distribution centre organized, the company shut down its seven centres in the province and laid off thousands of workers.
McGarrigle said he hopes to see a contract for these workers soon.
“We’re going to make sure their voice is loud and clear that they want a fair contract,” McGarrigle said. “We expect it’ll be a challenge, but then again, that’s what we do every day.”
