Amazon Canada is back in court, trying to block a ruling that lets hundreds of warehouse workers in Delta, B.C., unionize — but the workers aren’t backing down, reports The Logic.
The e-commerce giant has asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to review a July decision from the B.C. Labour Relations Board (BCLRB), which certified Unifor Local 114 to represent employees at Amazon’s YVR2 facility without a union vote. The union has already formed a bargaining committee and plans to start negotiations soon.
“Amazon seems to be trying to fight us every step of the way,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director.
Amazon argues the labour board’s decision was “wrong on the facts and the law” and called it “extraordinary,” claiming it could cause “irreparable harm” to its relationship with employees. The company also said workers hadn’t been given a fair chance to make an informed choice.
But Unifor says the company’s stall tactics won’t work. “Judicial review is always available, but rarely successful,” said union lawyer Colin Gusikoski.
Amazon’s YVR2 fulfillment centre is a massive warehouse located at 450 Derwent Place in Delta in the Lower Mainland, near the Fraser River and close to the South Fraser Perimeter Road (part of Highway 17). The facility, which opened in 2019, spans more than 450,000 square feet and employs hundreds of workers handling sorting, packaging, and shipping for the Metro Vancouver region, plus Vancouver Island. It’s one of several major Amazon logistics hubs in British Columbia.
The fight in Delta follows Amazon’s closure of all its Quebec facilities earlier this year after a warehouse in Laval became the first in Canada to unionize—a move Amazon insists was unrelated.
McGarrigle says B.C. workers are only getting started. “We’re going to throw everything we have at this to get that agreement,” he said, warning that if Amazon keeps breaking labour laws, “we’re going to use every tool in the toolbox to hold them accountable.”
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