(Bloomberg) — About 700 Amazon.com Inc. warehouse employees in western Canada are the company’s first North American logistics workers to be covered by a union contract after an independent arbitrator on Friday imposed terms between the online retailer and Unifor, one of the largest private-sector unions in the nation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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Specific terms of the agreement, which were emailed to Amazon and the union, couldn’t be immediately determined. The terms of the contract were determined through binding arbitration, which the British Columbia Labour Relations Board ordered in August following an impasse in negotiations.
Spokespeople for the union and Amazon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Despite the small number of workers affected — Amazon employs 1.64 million globally — the contract represents a key milestone for organized labor, which for years has targeted the company’s facilities from Alabama to Quebec.
The contract follows a fight between the union and Amazon that began in 2024 when employees at the facility started organizing. The union accused the company of unfair labor practices before votes were tallied and the votes remain sealed. Last year, the British Labour Relations Board approved the union through a process called remedial certification, which is reserved for situations where an employer’s actions make a fair vote unlikely. The labor board said Amazon mounted a “lengthy and pervasive anti-union campaign” in part by hiring an excessive number of workers to dilute union support, which Amazon denied.
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Source: finance.yahoo.com
