5 ms·

Amazon to close Quebec facilities, insists it's not because of new union

48 points by cf100clunk 2y ago

Lio 2y ago
That's brutal. Canning 1800 people not because they were bad at their jobs or for any economic factors but as collective punishment for just 200 people joining a union. Welcome to the oligarchy I guess.
- abduhl 2y ago
  Unionization and the threat of collective bargaining (and other workers’ rights) are economic factors.
- belter 2y ago
  At the same time there is nothing sold at Amazon that you can't find somewhere else. And probably will also not be a fake.
  - MichaelZuo 2y ago
    Yeah I’ve sometimes even seen the same user on HN expresing a desire to cut Amazon down to size and then the very next week bemoan some layoff or closure. Seems like it would save a lot of stress, and be less schizophrenic, to just buy things elsewhere.
    - readyplayernull 2y ago
      Temu is the new Amazon, same quality and real free shipping, it also sends a single package.
    - gorjusborg 2y ago
      Sure, an old school grassroots boycott can theoretically work, but talking about it in this context is a little like considering 'GoFundMe' fundraising campaigns as a replacement for a functional medical system. Laws should be enacted and enforced. Personal boycotts are not a replacement for government.
      - MichaelZuo 2y ago
        Laws pushed through… based on what political will? Legislators, the general population, regulators, etc., have finite amounts of time, energy, and determination.
      - throwway120385 2y ago
        The laws already exist. Antitrust suits would do a very good job of effecting change here.
        gorjusborg 2y ago
        'and enforced.'
  - 9283409232 2y ago
    Amazon has a lot of very niche parts that you can only find on Aliexpress and by waiting 3 months.
    - belter 2y ago
      And every time I tried I noticed its a seller, with an address, sometimes out of the first floor of a Pub somewhere in the UK, and Amazon will wash their hands out of it when the product turns out to be crap.
    - kjkjadksj 2y ago
      I found those are often on ebay with 2-3 day shipping sometimes. Same product image and everything. Usually a few bucks cheaper than the same item on amazon.
      - asvitkine 2y ago
        Maybe works for the US, but eBay shipping to Canada tend to ridiculously overpriced...
        kjkjadksj 2y ago
        There are basically two flavors of it on ebay. You could opt for free shipping from china, pay substantially less, but wait a month. Or you pay a little more in product cost for free shipping from someone who ordered these goods bulk from china and now ships them out of Van Nuys. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are Canada based sellers like this as well.
  - znpy 2y ago
    > And probably will also not be a fake. Happened to me twice with usb drives. Nowadays i only buy usb flash drives and sd/microsd cards from brick and mortar stores. Unironically the local grocery store has great deals on high quality (kioxia) usb3 flash drives. Better prices than specialised stores.
- bityard 2y ago
  Sorry, but there's a roughly zero percent chance that Amazon (a company who loves money, as a reminder) decided to close operations in a major city purely out of spite. Either it was already unprofitable, or was going to become unprofitable after the labor negotiations.
  - lelandfe 2y ago
    Closing up all facilities in the only city with a unionized workforce isn't something I would call spite. Example-setting is what springs to mind. A company that loves money sure wouldn't love a trend of spending more of it.
jmclnx 2y ago
In the US this would hardly be news, but I wonder if Canada could do something about this. AFAIK their labor laws are enforced and a bit stricter.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
StefanBatory 2y ago
And I don't live in mansion because I'm modest, not because I'm poor ;)
Macha 2y ago
I wonder if this is part of a wider trend of Amazon having difficult with its first party delivery network outside the US. They started doing first party deliveries here over 2023/2024 and while that worked well during the year, it really didn't over the Christmas period - delivery windows got much longer than they did last Christmas so for all of December even with Prime you were looking at delivery estimates several weeks away, and I've noticed in January an increase in the number of Amazon deliveries being delivered by third party shipping companies again.
- belter 2y ago
  You might be surprised, but if you look at their published quarter remarks even as recent as 2023, Amazon had a operating loss of $0.1 billion in Q3 2023 for the International Segment. Amazon is a success in the USA mostly. AWS of course is a different story. Old but still relevant: https://qz.com/1196193/amazon-amzn-is-struggling-to-duplicate-its-us-success-overseas https://qz.com/1196193/amazon-amzn-is-struggling-to-duplicat...

48 points by cf100clunk 2y ago

Lio 2y ago

That's brutal. Canning 1800 people not because they were bad at their jobs or for any economic factors but as collective punishment for just 200 people joining a union. Welcome to the oligarchy I guess.

abduhl 2y ago
Unionization and the threat of collective bargaining (and other workers’ rights) are economic factors.
belter 2y ago
At the same time there is nothing sold at Amazon that you can't find somewhere else. And probably will also not be a fake.
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  Yeah I’ve sometimes even seen the same user on HN expresing a desire to cut Amazon down to size and then the very next week bemoan some layoff or closure. Seems like it would save a lot of stress, and be less schizophrenic, to just buy things elsewhere.
  - readyplayernull 2y ago
    Temu is the new Amazon, same quality and real free shipping, it also sends a single package.
  - gorjusborg 2y ago
    Sure, an old school grassroots boycott can theoretically work, but talking about it in this context is a little like considering 'GoFundMe' fundraising campaigns as a replacement for a functional medical system. Laws should be enacted and enforced. Personal boycotts are not a replacement for government.
    - MichaelZuo 2y ago
      Laws pushed through… based on what political will? Legislators, the general population, regulators, etc., have finite amounts of time, energy, and determination.
    - throwway120385 2y ago
      The laws already exist. Antitrust suits would do a very good job of effecting change here.
      - gorjusborg 2y ago
        'and enforced.'
- 9283409232 2y ago
  Amazon has a lot of very niche parts that you can only find on Aliexpress and by waiting 3 months.
  - belter 2y ago
    And every time I tried I noticed its a seller, with an address, sometimes out of the first floor of a Pub somewhere in the UK, and Amazon will wash their hands out of it when the product turns out to be crap.
  - kjkjadksj 2y ago
    I found those are often on ebay with 2-3 day shipping sometimes. Same product image and everything. Usually a few bucks cheaper than the same item on amazon.
    - asvitkine 2y ago
      Maybe works for the US, but eBay shipping to Canada tend to ridiculously overpriced...
      - kjkjadksj 2y ago
        There are basically two flavors of it on ebay. You could opt for free shipping from china, pay substantially less, but wait a month. Or you pay a little more in product cost for free shipping from someone who ordered these goods bulk from china and now ships them out of Van Nuys. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are Canada based sellers like this as well.
- znpy 2y ago
  > And probably will also not be a fake. Happened to me twice with usb drives. Nowadays i only buy usb flash drives and sd/microsd cards from brick and mortar stores. Unironically the local grocery store has great deals on high quality (kioxia) usb3 flash drives. Better prices than specialised stores.
bityard 2y ago
Sorry, but there's a roughly zero percent chance that Amazon (a company who loves money, as a reminder) decided to close operations in a major city purely out of spite. Either it was already unprofitable, or was going to become unprofitable after the labor negotiations.
- lelandfe 2y ago
  Closing up all facilities in the only city with a unionized workforce isn't something I would call spite. Example-setting is what springs to mind. A company that loves money sure wouldn't love a trend of spending more of it.

jmclnx 2y ago

In the US this would hardly be news, but I wonder if Canada could do something about this. AFAIK their labor laws are enforced and a bit stricter.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

StefanBatory 2y ago

And I don't live in mansion because I'm modest, not because I'm poor ;)

Macha 2y ago

I wonder if this is part of a wider trend of Amazon having difficult with its first party delivery network outside the US. They started doing first party deliveries here over 2023/2024 and while that worked well during the year, it really didn't over the Christmas period - delivery windows got much longer than they did last Christmas so for all of December even with Prime you were looking at delivery estimates several weeks away, and I've noticed in January an increase in the number of Amazon deliveries being delivered by third party shipping companies again.

belter 2y ago
You might be surprised, but if you look at their published quarter remarks even as recent as 2023, Amazon had a operating loss of $0.1 billion in Q3 2023 for the International Segment. Amazon is a success in the USA mostly. AWS of course is a different story. Old but still relevant: https://qz.com/1196193/amazon-amzn-is-struggling-to-duplicate-its-us-success-overseas https://qz.com/1196193/amazon-amzn-is-struggling-to-duplicat...