With just six days until Christmas, thousands of Amazon workers in the U.S. are striking, and given that Canada Post workers just recently returned to the job after weeks on the picket line, many Canadians might be wondering if their packages will face further disruption.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Sean M. O’Brien, general president of Teamsters, the union representing the striking workers, said in a news release.
At 6 a.m. EST on Thursday, the union launched the “largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history,” comprised of nearly 10,000 workers at seven different facilities.
How does this affect Canadians?
Those relying on Amazon to deliver their last-minute holiday purchases will be relieved to know that the company has confirmed there will be no impact to its Canadian operations in an email to the Star.
Even though some of the products available on Amazon Canada ship directly from the U.S., the workers represented by Teamsters only make up a fraction of Amazon’s total workforce in the U.S. and there are many other facilities those items could potentially come from.
There has also been no indication that Canadian workers will be joining their southern counterparts on the picket line.
In fact, there’s currently only one Amazon facility in Canada where workers are unionized and have the ability to legally strike — in Laval, Que., and they’re represented by the Confederation of National Trade Unions (Confédération des syndicats nationaux), not The Teamsters or Teamsters Canada.
