By: Thomas I. LiknessEBC News Service

(Eagle News) — Amazon faces a challenge from the Teamsters union which is trying to organize one of the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment centers near Edmonton.

The union has applied to the Alberta Labour Relations Board to hold a union vote.

If the application is approved, it will be the first time a union vote has been held at an Amazon warehouse in Canada.

“Amazon won’t change without a union. Be it on job security, pace of work, discrimination, favouritism, or wages, the company has proven itself to be profoundly anti-worker,” Teamsters Canada president François Laporte said Tuesday in a statement.

The union says discrimination and favoritism are major concerns at Edmonton-area warehouse.

It says a large number of Amazon workers joined the union campaign after feeling that they were given less favorable assignments due to their ethnic background or their relationship with their superiors.

The union adds most of the frontline workers are new Canadians and visible minorities, whereas almost all of the supervisors are white.

Past attempts to unionize Amazon warehouses in the U.S. have failed.
(Eagle News Service)