Amazon is not only one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies; it is also one of the most striking examples of an algorithmically managed work regime. The company’s business model, built around speed and efficiency, subjects the labor of warehouse and distribution workers to tight controls while systematically targeting unions, the most important force capable of challenging this system. This investigation by Basta! examines the pressure tactics Amazon has developed against union organizing through cases in France and Canada. From disciplinary actions against union representatives and dismissals to company decisions willing to leave thousands of workers unemployed rather than sign collective bargaining agreements, these examples show that anti-unionism is not a matter of isolated practices, but one of the fundamental elements of Amazon’s work regime. At a time when the logistics sector and platform capitalism are rapidly expanding, and organizing struggles among warehouse and distribution workers are becoming increasingly important, we are sharing this investigation with our readers because it sheds light on Amazon’s anti-union policies and their impact on the labor regime.
While Amazon has chosen to withdraw from Quebec rather than sign a collective bargaining agreement, union activists working at the e-commerce giant’s warehouses in France are exposing the sanctions imposed on them and the corporate culture that obstructs their activities.
“We’re not known for bowing to the boss; we’re known for making them uncomfortable. We won’t let them crush us.” They wanted to get rid of her, but they failed. Tatiana Campagne, now back at work, has no intention of being intimidated. The logistics worker and Sud-Solidaires union activist, who was dismissed in August 2025 for alleged serious misconduct (management accused her of sending insulting messages about the human resources director in a chat group), returned to both her job and her union representative duties this past March.
The dismissal, initially approved by the labor inspectorate, was ultimately overturned by the Ministry of Labor. According to the ministry’s ruling reviewed by Basta!, the ministry emphasized that the messaging group in question was “private” and stated that this “could not be considered a breach of the employees’ obligations.” Moreover, the group, called “Élus-ES/mandates 2023,” was intended for communication among union activists themselves. Some colleagues are alleged to have leaked its contents to management.
According to information from Basta!, which has also been confirmed by Amazon, the company is now set to appeal the Labor Ministry’s decision in an attempt to ultimately dismiss Tatiana Campagne. Campagne and her fellow union members are convinced that they are now being made to pay the price for the struggle they organized in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the company to temporarily shut down its warehouses. In Lauwin-Planque, near Douai and home to a major Amazon distribution center, Jérôme Guillain, secretary of the Sud-Solidaires union, says, “We’ve been under pressure ever since we got the warehouses shut down.” He, too, has been facing the threat of dismissal since last March 26.
In 2020, in the midst of Covid, union representatives from Solidaires, CGT, FO, and CFDT took action to force Amazon to put health measures in place for its employees. Eventually, a court formally warned the company and ordered it to scale back its operations. Rather than accept the defeat and adjust its operations accordingly, Amazon decided to temporarily shut down all of its sorting and distribution facilities. In Lauwin-Planque, the Solidaires team, including Tatiana Campagne, played an active role in the struggle.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold. They went after our team one by one. First it was Tatiana; now it’s my turn,” says Jérôme Guillain. In February 2026, Guillain and Sud-Solidaires organized a demonstration outside Amazon’s headquarters in Clichy in support of Tatiana Campagne. Twenty days later, he himself was summoned to a pre-dismissal meeting. This time, management accused him of making insulting remarks about Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. The union representative said that “the remarks were made in a humorous vein.” “But what management is really concerned about is my union activities and getting Tatiana reinstated,” he added.
In February 2026, unionists from various parts of France took action in support of Tatiana Campagne and to condemn the successive sanctions imposed on union members. But the pressure is not directed only at Solidaires members. In March 2025, the CGT also distributed leaflets outside Amazon’s headquarters in opposition to the removal of remote work for office employees. For the first time, company executives found themselves being handed a union leaflet. Guillaume Robin, a CGT representative at the Sevrey warehouse in Saône-et-Loire and a member of Ugict, the union’s branch for managers and technicians, also took part in the leaflet distribution. Since the beginning of 2025, he had been trying to warn his colleagues about the measures imposed to end remote work for office employees. Three months after this action, in June 2025, he was summoned to a “preliminary meeting concerning a possible disciplinary sanction” and was subsequently suspended for three days.
According to the disciplinary notice reviewed by Basta!, he was accused of “misusing professional meetings and communication tools for the purpose of union organizing.” The allegations reached management through reports from employees who had attended the meetings. The union representative, for his part, says, “I carry out my union work to educate my colleagues about their rights and to gather their demands within the company, which is something Amazon generally hates and which management in particular fears most.”
One of the few union members among Amazon’s management, Guillaume Robin describes an “anti-union corporate culture” in which union activity is seen as a form of betrayal. Those who belong to unions have to do so “secretly.” Yet after receiving his disciplinary sanction, Robin managed to establish several union branches within the management ranks, including one at the Clichy headquarters. He took the case to the labor court to challenge the sanction and is seeking damages on the grounds of anti-union discrimination.
At the Brétigny-sur-Orge distribution center in Essonne, the Sud-Solidaires team is well acquainted with these tactics. Joseph Mukoko, a union representative and member of the workplace Social and Economic Committee, says, “We’re regularly targeted.” In January 2026, he and around ten colleagues were invited to the European Parliament to observe a hearing before the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, where Amazon executives were questioned about the company’s anti-union practices in Europe. Numerous cases had come to light in this context: a union cell infiltrated in Italy, a unionist dismissed in Poland for investigating the death of a worker, and a union representative in Slovakia whose employment was terminated following paternity leave.
Amazon, which declined to comment on these various cases, maintains that “all disciplinary proceedings are conducted independently of union activity” and that “there is no link between any disciplinary sanction and participation in union activity or any external event.”
The accounts gathered through Basta!’s interviews reveal an entrenched system that targets not only union activity but also individual behavior. The union representatives interviewed list numerous situations that can lead to sanctions: a poorly parked car, an improperly used pallet truck, a slip of the tongue, or a slightly harsh tone… Jean-François Bérot, a Sud-Solidaires representative at the Saran warehouse near Orléans, says he encounters these “absurd sanctions” every day and that they “can affect all workers, but the dismissal process moves much faster for those who are union members and become targets of management.”
According to labor sociologist Francesco Sabato Massimo, union members are targeted because they have the potential to challenge Amazon’s economic and organizational model. In 2025, the company made €65.75 billion in profit with more than 1.5 million employees worldwide, most of them working in its warehouses, including more than 25,000 warehouse workers in France alone. This profitability is largely based on a meticulously designed work organization managed by algorithms.
The sociologist’s research shows that while the company uses pressure mechanisms to increase efficiency—including work pressure, individual performance evaluations, and promises of permanent employment—it also targets unions that demand better wages and raise concerns about excessive work pace and the workplace accidents it causes. The researcher sums up the situation as follows: “Amazon mobilizes its workers’ labor power while simultaneously disabling their potential for collective action.” He explains, “From management’s perspective, the real danger is the presence of unions capable of intervening in wages and how work is organized.”
Anthony Smith, a former labor inspector and now a member of the European Parliament for La France Insoumise, describes the situation this way: “Amazon dismisses workers on the grounds of incapacity so it does not have to create suitable positions; it wants an undamaged workforce that can be used at 100% of its physical capacity. That is why union activists defending workers’ health and safety disrupt Amazon’s work model.”
When Amazon cannot prevent its workers from organizing, it can go beyond its anti-union practices. On January 22, 2025, the company announced that it would close all seven of its storage, sorting, and distribution facilities in Quebec. The multinational publicly cited economic reasons for the abrupt decision. But behind the scenes, Amazon was trying to deal with a situation it had not anticipated: the establishment of union branches at its facilities.
When Confédération Syndicale Nationale (CSN), Quebec’s largest militant union, launched an organizing campaign at a distribution center east of Montreal in 2023, Amazon put up paternalistic anti-union posters in various parts of the workplace, including the restrooms. The posters stated, “Keep your signature. Unions cannot guarantee changes in the workplace” and “Unions charge you membership dues.” Following the campaign, CSN came close to obtaining majority support and becoming the certified bargaining agent, but narrowly fell short. In 2024, however, it secured a ruling against the company for obstructing union activity.
That same year, CSN took action again and organized the clandestine establishment of a union branch at another distribution center in Laval, north of Montreal. The campaign succeeded, and Amazon’s first union in Canada was established in May 2024. The aim was to force the e-commerce giant to sign a collective bargaining agreement governing working conditions, wages, and seniority rules, while providing greater protection for workers in the event of layoffs.
Amazon has never signed such a collective bargaining agreement with its workers anywhere in North America. Félix Trudeau, a worker at the Laval facility who played an active role in the unionization effort, says that company managers came to the facility a few days after the union was established: “They were actually management provocateurs, strikebreakers. They walked around talking to workers, asking how they were doing and whether they had any problems, and telling them they did not have to join the union.” A few months later, Amazon decided to raise the wages of all its workers in Quebec… except those at the Laval facility.
By the end of 2024, negotiations with management had reached an impasse, leaving CSN with only one option. In Quebec, when a union and a company cannot reach an agreement, the state appoints a judge who can order the signing of a collective bargaining agreement that meets, at a minimum, Quebec labor law standards. On January 22, 2025, Félix Trudeau was preparing to appear before the Administrative Labour Tribunal for the final round of negotiations, which was expected to result in the appointment of a judge. That morning, he received a message from CSN’s lawyer: “Hearing cancelled, Amazon is pulling out of Quebec.”
Rather than sign a collective bargaining agreement, Amazon chose to withdraw from operating its facilities in Quebec. Within a month, 4,500 people had lost their jobs. In an extremely unusual move for the company, the sorting and shipping of packages in Quebec is now handled through subcontractors. Félix Trudeau said, “Our collective agreement could have been an inspiration for Amazon workers in the United States. That is one of the things Amazon cannot tolerate,” pointing out that at the only unionized Amazon warehouse in the United States, the Staten Island facility, Chris Smalls and his union, Amazon Labor Union, are still fighting to secure a collective bargaining agreement.
At the beginning of May, Amazon announced a €15 billion investment in France, promising to create 7,000 new jobs. The company therefore appears set to continue expanding its operations while maintaining its anti-union model. Anthony Smith criticizes this approach: “Behind these jobs are three times as many subcontracting companies that will work for Amazon and adopt its model. Amazon systematically and deliberately violates labor law, setting employers the worst possible example.”
Translated by: Konstantin Er and ProZ Pro Bono
