Amazon, STM top list of ‘worst employers’ in Quebec in 2025: CSN

CSN President Caroline Senneville speaks about the union's 2025 list of Quebec's 'worst employers.'

After Amazon abruptly shut down all of its warehouses in Quebec, the American retail giant has now earned the reputation as the worst employer in the province.

The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) released its annual list of bad employers on Monday, which they say have taken actions to “set back the rights of Quebec workers.”

Amazon

In the #1 spot for 2025 is Amazon, after its controversial decision in January to pull out of Quebec, not long after the unionization of 200 employees in 2024 at Amazon’s DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Que.

The Laval warehouse was the company’s first to unionize in Canada. Closing down its seven warehouses in Quebec resulted in the loss of 4,500 jobs.

“Closing down a shop because it has unionized is illegal. It’s illegal in Quebec, it’s also illegal in Canada,” said CSN President Caroline Senneville in an interview on Monday.

• Amazon, worker union before Quebec labour tribunal over warehouse closures

The company has denied a link between the decision to close the seven facilities in Quebec and the Laval warehouse forming a union, but the CSN is taking Amazon to court, arguing that the closures were indeed a retaliatory measure.

“If our money is good enough for Amazon, so should our social and labour laws,” Senneville said.

Quebec companies are also on the list.

Béton Provincial

Béton Provincial, which offers concrete products, came in second place.

The CSN noted that six months after acquiring the LaSalle and Longueuil plants, the company locked out its 50 employees on Dec. 5, 2024, “depriving them of employment insurance benefits at the start of the off-season.”

“While some have up to 30 years of service at these plants, the employees are still out on the street after more than a year and refuse to accept the conditions demanded by André Bélanger’s company: a four-year wage freeze, the abolition of their pension plan, and a downward revision of their group insurance,” said the CSN, which represents more than 330,000 workers in the public and private sectors.

Renaud-Bray

Next is Renaud-Bray, the Quebec company that boasts the largest network of French-language bookstores in North America. Renaud-Bray refuses to budge on its offer of 15 cents above minimum wage after workers asked for $1 more than minimum wage.

Employees at the Laurier Québec and Galeries de la Capitale branches have been on strike for a year.

Senneville disagreed with the notion that without making some concessions, employers, who are facing tougher times and are working with increased costs, are struggling to survive.

“It becomes harder and harder to survive for their workers. Imagine working for 15 cents more than the minimum wage although you have a degree. Librarians have a degree and some of them have been working for Renaud-Bray for decades,” she said.

“Same thing with Amazon. Don’t tell me that Amazon is not profitable and that it can’t afford to give a living wage to their employees. They’re not the little shop down the street. They’re big businesses and they make big money. The thing is, they don’t want to share it with the ones that make them make their money and that’s the workers.”

STM

In the fourth spot this year is public transit agency the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

The STM was the only employer to respond to a request for comment before publication time.

Spokesperson Amélie Régis told Noovo Info that the STM had “never stopped negotiating in good faith after 20 months of discussions [...] in addition to six months of unsuccessful mediation and 45 days of conciliation.”

• New strike by STM maintenance workers will begin Dec. 11

“Over the past few months, the STM has submitted several offers to the maintenance union, including compromises and salary increases,” Régis wrote in a statement.

“The STM has demonstrated that it is possible to reach an agreement with the union: negotiated agreements have been concluded with the drivers’ union, metro operators, station agents, and administrative staff in recent weeks.”

However, the CSN blames the STM for maintaining “an inflexible position at the bargaining table for more than 120 meetings.” Metro and bus services were disrupted several times in the Greater Montreal area during the conflict.

“The STM had every interest in playing for time: it knew that a new law was about to come into force, yet it remained entrenched in its position and still refuses to reach an agreement with all of its employees,” Senneville commented in a written statement.

Quebec government

The Government of Quebec also made the list of worst employers at #5.

“Whether in pre-hospital services, corrections, or legal aid, thousands of workers have not had a pay raise since 2022: the government has no valid reason to drag out these negotiations,” the CSN said, adding that workers in the health and social services network still have not yet received bonuses that were negotiated two years ago.

The union also attacked the government for rolling back workers’ rights with Law 14, which forced public transit workers who are on strike to enter arbitration, and Bill 3, which would, among other things, make part of union dues optional.

CTV News Montreal reached out to Amazon, Béton Provincial and Renaud-Bray and did not receive a response by deadline.