'Amazon should stay out of it': Unifor kicks off 1st-of-its-kind union drive in B.C.

British Columbia may soon be home to the first unionization of an Amazon facility in Canada.

Organizers with Unifor, the country’s largest union in the private sector, gathered outside an Amazon fulfillment centre in New Westminster on Wednesday morning to kick off the unprecedented campaign.

Gavin McGarrigle, the western regional director for Unifor, told reporters he’s proud of Amazon workers for taking a stand and reaching out. He also had a message for their employer.

“Amazon should stay out of it. This is the workers’ decision and they’re here with the strongest private labour union in Canada. We’re not going to let you down,” McGarrigle said.

Unifor represents more than 310,000 members who work in sectors ranging from transportation to telecommunications to public service.

Once a majority of Amazon workers sign a membership card indicating their desire to unionize, Unifor will be able to submit an application to the Labour Relations Board and begin the bargaining process for their first collective agreement.

McGarrigle says Unifor has heard from Amazon workers who are tired of not being respected, and are concerned about health, safety and job security.

Chris Smalls, the U.S. activist who led the first successful union drive of Amazon workers last year in New York, is all too familiar with those concerns.

Smalls joined Unifor as the group announced its organizing campaign in B.C.

“Without a union there are no protections, with a union we have better quality of life, better protections, better wages, better medical wage options, a pension and better job security,” Smalls told the crowd.

He was motivated to organize his own union drive in New York after being fired for walking off the job while protesting COVID-19 protocols at his Amazon facility in 2020.

Smalls’ efforts paid off in April 2022, when a majority of the roughly 8,300 workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse voted to unionize, and became the first U.S. Amazon facility to do so.

“Last year alone, Amazon spent over $14.2 million to stop our efforts in the U.S.,” Smalls noted. “No amount of money in the world can amount to the power of people when we come together, and I’m hoping that our historical victory last year will also resonate here, so that this company and this warehouse will be victorious as well.”

Last April is also when the B.C. government made amendments to the province’s union certification process, reducing the two-step system to a single-step one.

Under the two-step system, a minimum of 45 per cent of workers would have to sign membership cards before an additional vote on unionizing could be held.

Now, an additional voting process is only required if between 45 and 55 per cent of workers sign membership cards. If more than 55 per cent sign on, no further vote is required.

“We know in British Columbia, workers aren’t going to face the same kind of intimidation they faced in the U.S. and elsewhere,” McGarrigle said.