Amazon Union Drive is north of Canada

The Canadian branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of America’s largest labor unions, said Tuesday that it requested that labor regulators in the province of Alberta certify a union for workers at an Amazon warehouse in the city of Niscu, south of the capital. did. Edmonton, and 300 miles north of the Montana border.

To be eligible for certification in Alberta, 40% of the unit’s employees must sign a petition in support of unionization. Until the signatures are verified, the Alberta Labor Relations Board will conduct a secret ballot among the warehouse’s approximately 800 employees on whether the union campaign will be successful.

A Labor Board spokesman said the agency had received Teamsters’ application, but declined to comment on next steps. A Teamsters spokesman said the increase in Covid-19 cases in the province could complicate the timing of a certification vote.

“We are not anti-Amazon. We are just trying to help Amazon employees,” said François Laporte, president of Teamsters Canada. We’re not bothered by the fact that Amazon is a successful company. We get upset, or not, when we hear about workers not getting their fair share. They are being treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.”

An Amazon spokesperson said the company does not believe that unions are the best way for employees to make a profit. “Every day we empower people to find ways to improve their jobs, and when they do we want to make those changes quickly. That type of continuous improvement quickly and deftly with unions in the middle It’s hard to do,” said the spokesperson.

On Monday, Amazon said it planned to hire 15,000 full-time and part-time employees across Canada, and raised wages for front-line workers to the equivalent of 21.65 Canadian dollars an hour, or $17. Minimum wages are set by the regional governments of Canada and range from C$11.75 to C$16 per hour. The company currently employs 25,000 people in Canada. The company plans to add 125,000 employees in the US as it prepares for holiday shopping.

None of Amazon’s employees are unionized in the United States or Canada. Amazon beat a union drive at an Alabama warehouse earlier this year after 71% of employees declined retail, wholesale and department store union representation. The election could resume after a federal labor official said Amazon violated labor practices during a vote, an allegation Amazon has denied.

Those who sided with the union in Alabama said they wanted to bargain with Amazon on matters such as the break and the rate at which they worked. Many workers voted against the union because they did not believe it would have a substantial impact on their compensation or workplace experiences, or were concerned about taking over the company.

Teamsters is one of America’s largest labor unions, representing over one million employees throughout North America including package delivery, warehousing and trucking workers. In June the group said it would mobilize resources and staff to help organize Amazon employees across the US.

In Canada, labor law is largely a provincial jurisdiction, with the exception of areas—notably airlines, railways and telecommunications—which the federal government controls.

Union certification tends to be more difficult in Alberta relative to other Canadian provinces, said Maurice Dransfeld, partner at McLennan Ross, an Edmonton-based employment law firm. Unlike other Canadian jurisdictions, Dransfeld said, Alberta allows employers to campaign against unionization before a vote.

This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed