Amazon workers at this facility are experiencing below industry wages, scrutiny from upper management and dangerous work conditions. Amazon worker Manuel Tapial is trying to change this. Tapial is spearheading the campaign, he has been the Coordinator of The Montreal Amazon Workers’ Union (MAWU) dating back to the start of the movement earlier this year. The motivation came after observing the treatment his colleagues received when requesting paid sick leave and for their unfair dismissal. 

This follows Staten Island Amazon becoming the first Amazon location to unionize this past Spring – a victory which Amazon is trying to overturn.

Not only is Tapial the first person to begin organizing at the Montreal warehouse, but he was also the first to gain scrutiny and intimidation from Amazon for his activism. 

“They are attacking the union inside the facility and threatening the workers saying, “If you join the union, you will lose your benefits," said Tapial. "I got two final written warnings, they are doing intimidations [sic] and even private conversations that I had in my mother tongue language, that is Spanish, that I had with colleagues in the break room, has been reported [to Amazon].

Tapial said this is a very clear sign that Amazon is telling him to be careful.

Intimidation tactics have also taken the form of advertising and in messages. “Do I have to sign a union card?” “It is your fundamental right not to sign or to say “no thank you,” or “I am not interested,” reads a recent mass text message sent to Montreal Amazon workers.

Tapial said MAWU has not yet met their quota of members to form a union, but the efforts continue.

Posters have also begun to pop up around the Amazon location dissuading people from participating in union activities. It is common to hear management threaten the loss of benefits and spread other misinformation about unions. An added layer of intimidation can be found in the fact that the majority of Montreal Amazon workers are immigrants who rely on the job for a stable income, making Amazon’s threats even more impactful.