By March 22, 2025, more than 2,000 employees will lose their jobs following Amazon’s decision to close its seven warehouses in Quebec. This decision will lead to the direct or indirect loss of over 4,500 jobs related to the company’s operations. It comes at a time when Amazon was about to be forced into its first-ever collective agreement through legal arbitration, due to its refusal to negotiate with the newly formed union at the Laval warehouse (DXT-4).
Out of roughly fifteen Amazon warehouse unionization campaigns in North America, only a handful have successfully gained union recognition. However, none have managed to secure a collective agreement. Beyond its well-documented anti-union tactics, it is crucial to understand where Amazon derives its power in order to adapt our strategies for resistance.
Being 4th in the World Allows for Closing a Few Warehouses
With a market capitalization of $2 trillion, Amazon is the fourth richest company in the world. Globally, the company directly employs 1.5 million people, with many more working for it indirectly. The key to its business model lies in its ability to connect producers, buyers, and affiliates (such as bloggers and others) on a single online sales platform: Amazon.com.
This platform accounts for just under half of Amazon’s total revenue, bringing in $220 billion in 2022. In the U.S., 37.6% of all online purchases are made through Amazon, and in Quebec, that number rises to 50%. Walmart trails far behind in second place, holding less than 10% of the market share. The main reason Amazon can afford to shut down its own warehouses to prevent unionization is that the cost of closing them is far lower than the threat posed by a united workforce.
Where to Build Leverage?
With its expertise and development in web services, Amazon has expanded by offering cloud computing and other IT-related services. The company controls more than a third of the global web hosting market, far ahead of competitors like Microsoft and Google. Disrupting Amazon Web Services would deprive the company of a fifth of its revenue.
Amazon also generates substantial income from its suite of paid services under Amazon Prime. Currently, one in three Americans holds a Prime subscription, with a similar rate in Quebec. Other revenue sources include fees from its 17,600 patents, media production, delivery services, and various related activities. While boycotting Amazon Prime is possible, cutting off profits from patents would require a much more serious challenge to Amazon’s ownership structure.
Amazon’s diverse revenue streams, but especially its centralized warehouse operations, allow it to achieve massive economies of scale. This enables the company to offer absurdly low delivery fees. For small and medium-sized businesses, Amazon’s platform provides a cost-effective and highly efficient way to distribute goods compared to maintaining a physical storefront or using alternative delivery services. As a result, Amazon is an essential marketplace for attracting new consumers.
Due to its dominance, Amazon can effectively neutralize its competition. At this stage, only a state-level enterprise offering a superior service could stand a chance of competing with it.
Amazon’s Economic Power Wins Political Favor
Some political reactions in support of the Amazon boycott might give the impression that Canadian lawmakers stand in solidarity with workers. However, this is not the case. At the federal level, it’s easy to forget that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, in 2018 to encourage him to invest in Canada. This lobbying effort was successful, as Amazon went on to build a headquarters in Toronto in 2022.
In 2020, Quebec’s government of François Legault launched Le Panier Bleu (the bleu basket), an online directory meant to promote Quebec-made products. At the same time, Investissement Québec (Quebec investment fund) was holding multiple meetings with Amazon to bring the American giant closer to Quebec’s small and medium-sized businesses. The government later supported the creation of the nonprofit Les Produits du Québec (Quebec’s products), separate from Le Panier Bleu. By February 2024, Le Panier Bleu was shut down after being privatized and receiving $22 million in public funding. In the end, the platform only managed to reclaim 7% of Quebec’s online transactions—while Amazon ultimately took over with its own Les Produits du Québec certification.
Amazon also profits from the Quebec government’s web hosting contracts. The government has signed around 50 contracts worth $170 million with Amazon, most of them with AWS, which provides cloud computing services and server infrastructure. Additionally, the multinational has benefited from preferential electricity rates for its data center in Varennes, a city east of Montréal.
Legault’s Government Follows Amazon’s Lead
When Amazon announced the closure of its warehouses, Premier François Legault initially dodged the issue before later stating that he could not manage the company. In doing so, he positioned his government at the mercy of Amazon’s decisions. However, as boycott campaigns promoting local purchasing gained popularity, the CAQ suddenly claimed to have shifted its stance. Éric Caire, Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Technology, announced that his government was “re-evaluating” its “active” contracts with Amazon.
The Legault government may engage in symbolic gestures of economic nationalism, but given the context of a historic budget deficit, it is unlikely to make extravagant spending shifts toward Quebec-based web hosting providers. After all, the role of capitalist governments — like Legault’s — is to ensure that multinational corporations “invest” locally.
The CAQ’s concrete actions in favor of exploitative employers like Amazon are once again evident in its latest bill, proposition 89, aimed at limiting the duration of strikes and lockouts. This forced arbitration strategy mirrors the Trudeau government’s approach against port, railway, and postal workers that saw their right to strike limited or revoked.
Amazon Secures Its Main Market: The United States
In 2024, Amazon donated $1 million to the inaugural fund of newly elected US President Trump. Other tech giants, such as Meta and OpenAI, also made similar contributions. Unsurprisingly, Trump had promised perks to those who donated $1 million or more, including tickets to events where he would be present or opportunities to meet JD Vance, the current US Vice President.
This amount stands in stark contrast to the $57,000 Amazon contributed to Trump’s previous inaugural fund in 2017. Back then, tensions were high between Trump and Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos. Trump repeatedly claimed that The Washington Post—partially owned by Bezos since 2013—was biased against him. Indeed, the newspaper has consistently supported Democratic candidates in US elections for the past thirty years.
However, in the most recent elections, Amazon did not endorse any candidate, signaling a newfound openness toward Trump. Washington Post employees have criticized this editorial shift, viewing it as evidence that Amazon is willing to realign politically to push its agenda of market and labor deregulation. Jeff Bezos remains optimistic, as Trump’s policies align precisely with Amazon’s interests. After all, 60% of the company’s revenue comes from the US market.
Boycott Campaigns
Despite Amazon’s power, Quebec workers are willing to fight. Following the announcement of Amazon’s warehouse closures, activists launched a boycott campaign called Ici, on boycott Amazon (Here, We Boycott Amazon). This campaign has captured the attention of thousands by channeling anger against the multinational. Its demands are for Amazon to remain in Quebec, respect labor laws, and stop receiving public subsidies. If the company shuts down, activists are calling on Legault to expropriate Amazon’s infrastructure and other assets. They also demand that Amazon repay its public subsidies and provide laid-off workers with one year of wages and insurance—rather than the three months the company has offered.
The Syndicat des Travailleuses et Travailleurs d’Amazon Laval (Amazon Laval worker’s union, STTAL-CSN) has joined the campaign and endorsed its demands. This collaboration has helped organize rallies and picket lines outside the DXT-4 warehouse.
Meanwhile, the CSN (National confederation of unions) has launched its own campaign titled Délivrons-nous d’Amazon (Let’s Free Ourselves from Amazon). The union federation is encouraging individuals to show solidarity by boycotting Amazon and urging public institutions to do the same. This call for a boycott aligns with the broader trend of economic nationalism and local purchasing, now supported by most lawmakers. At a national protest organized by the CSN on February 15, more than 2,000 people gathered in Montreal around this cause. Many unions, advocacy groups, and even municipalities have endorsed one or both Amazon boycott campaigns.
Some of Ici, on boycott Amazon’s demands go beyond the purely economic issue of job retention. They challenge the government’s role in this labor dispute. These demands hold great potential—this campaign could help build stronger labor solidarity and fuel a political pushback against parties that, in practice, support Amazon.
Unions and Strikes, Here and Internationally
Symbolic actions and moral calls to action can help mobilize the public and motivate workers. But they won’t make Amazon back down. For Amazon employees, the strongest possible leverage at the local level comes from striking — even if it’s illegal. After all, Amazon has no qualms about violating labor laws to prevent its workers from unionizing.
However, Amazon is willing to shut down its Quebec warehouses to prevent a union from taking root. To win the demands being fought for, the balance of power must be pushed even further — it requires stopping production on a much larger scale. This means workers in Quebec must not only mobilize locally but also take concrete action to paralyze Amazon’s operations, whether by blocking deliveries or disrupting web services at their own workplaces. More importantly, it requires coordinated action from Amazon employees across other warehouses and divisions, both in Canada and the United States.
According to Johnathan Rosenblum, a labor organizer with experience at Amazon, the solution lies in international union solidarity. Amazon’s punitive approach in Quebec shows that traditional strategies are insufficient against a corporation of this scale. Closing one or even several warehouses is not a major obstacle for the company. Rosenblum argues that unions must unite on a global level to launch a coordinated campaign.
For example, during a labor dispute in Quebec, international solidarity could help shut down a critical number of warehouses in the United States, significantly strengthening the leverage of Amazon workers. However, this level of solidarity still needs to be built.
The logistics sector — responsible for the movement of goods — is highly strategic in society. Capitalists and business owners can no longer function without massive international supply chains managed by corporations like Amazon. Yet, in their relentless pursuit of profit, these companies continue to drive down working conditions.
As the cost of living rises, more and more logistics workers are organizing into unions. With the new tariff war between Canada and the US, prices will continue to increase in the coming years. Logistics workers need all the support they can get to carry out unionization campaigns, as well as the strikes and workplace occupations that are now necessary to gain union recognition. It is crucial for union organizing teams to maintain a presence in as many warehouses as possible, even if unions are not yet officially recognized.
A Legal System Stacked Against Workers
Despite years of organizing, no Amazon unionization campaign in the US — including major ones at JFK8 (New York) and KCVG (Kentucky) — has succeeded in securing a collective agreement. However, union organizing committees remain highly active and continue to fight despite years of aggressive anti-union tactics.
In Laval, workers successfully established the first accredited Amazon union in Canada. But before a legally imposed collective agreement could take effect through arbitration — something the CSN was counting on — Amazon chose to shut down its operations in Quebec. This makes one thing clear: restricting workers’ struggles to the legal framework alone is not enough. Relying solely on labor laws and the official bargaining process means losing against corporate giants like Amazon.
This multinational is winning the game of class struggle. Its operations in Quebec will continue, but without the burden of a union. Delivery services will shift to subcontractors like Intelcom. This makes it crucial to double down on efforts to unionize the entire logistics sector.
Unionization can build significant leverage against Amazon. But how can its social, economic, and political influence be countered? Even with a fully unionized and militant logistics sector, the balance of power would still be insufficient. Amazon challenges every labor tribunal ruling in the U.S. and Canada. It has the backing of Trump, Trudeau, and Legault — leaders who pass anti-worker laws. No salvation will come from these politicians, no matter how sympathetic their rhetoric may seem.
Amazon targets its own employees, but the entire working class pays the price. As a fortress of anti-union policies, it sets the standard for labor relations. Defeating Amazon cannot happen solely through union or legal battles. A political push is needed. An alternative vision for organizing society must fuel the struggle. That is why building a political organization that unites the active forces of the working class is essential — an organization with its own vision for the services that should be provided to the people.
Transforming Amazon’s Logistics Infrastructure
Given the scale and power of Amazon, the solution is not to rely on a scattered array of small and medium-sized businesses that are unable to compete with Amazon’s vast networks and services. Once the dust settles, governments and cities will likely continue using Amazon’s services. Meanwhile, businesses and consumers will still seek the cheapest options for selling, buying, shipping, and hosting their websites.
The answer is also not to pour billions of public dollars into large Quebec-based private companies that remain at the mercy of global markets — nor to invest in a Panier Bleu 2.0 run by the state. In Argentina, a public online marketplace called Correo Compras, managed by the national postal service, was launched in 2020. The goal was to regulate the digital economy and provide public alternatives for businesses, promising the lowest prices to compete with corporate giants. However, it was shut down at the same time as Panier Bleu, following the election of libertarian President Javier Milei. This demonstrates that without political control, the working class can lose hard-won gains.
The fight against Amazon should not be purely defensive. Amazon controls essential infrastructure. The only real way to defeat this corporate giant is to expropriate its facilities and place them under public, democratic, and transparent control. Canada Post could take charge of this transition.
However, achieving this requires building a working-class and socialist political force capable of carrying out such a project. One cannot demand Amazon’s departure or its expropriation without actively working to create the political vehicle necessary to make it happen. Currently, no political force exists that truly emerges from the labor movement and organizes its struggles. Creating a workers’ and socialist party is not an abstract fantasy — it is a strategic necessity to give political direction to grassroots struggles. It is long past time for today’s campaigns to boldly advocate for the only logical response to rejecting Amazon: the democratic nationalization of its infrastructure and operations by a political force rooted in the working class.
The functioning of corporations like Amazon and Walmart is based on the ruthless exploitation of their workforce. But it is also based on internal cooperation and information-sharing through advanced technologies. This reality proves that large-scale economic planning is not only possible but necessary. Capitalist multinationals must meticulously plan their markets within the framework of global capitalism. However, unlike a socialist planned economy, this capitalist planning is designed for profit — not to meet human needs.
To solve this problem once and for all, we must challenge both capitalist ownership and political power. We must fight for control over the key means of production, communication, and distribution — not for private profit, but to serve the real needs of people worldwide. Let’s fight for international socialism, here and now!
