From time to time, we check in on Mr. Bezos’ ongoing efforts to abuse the labor rights of various working people, on a global basis. That is our first story, today. The Canadian labor relations regulators have ruled that Amazon unlawfully retaliated against Vancouver BC area warehouse workers during contract negotiations, for the “offense” of voting in a… union.

Amazon stopped paying annual raises and bonuses, during the negotiations, while paying them out at all non-union shops. [There was a five year track record of annual raises and bonuses, in the facility — before unionization.] What an out of touch billionaire-putz this Bezos guy is — workers are teammates, and peers — not serfs, in the 21^st Century. He needs a wake-up call. Here’s that, from Friday, at a Canadian outlet:

…Employees at Amazon’s Delta warehouse on Annacis Island will be getting some back pay following a B.C. Labour Relations Board ruling last month.

Jonathan Hanvelt, vice-chair of the board, said that Amazon contravened Sec. 45 (1) (b) of the Labour Relations Code.

That section says that wages and working conditions should remain unchanged during the time when talks for a first contract are underway at a newly certified operation…. one of those working conditions was regular, annual pay reviews and increases, which Amazon paid at its other locations, but missed in 2025 at the Delta location on Derwent Place because bargaining for a first contract with Unifor was underway….

[T]he LRB’s decision… points out that from 2020 to 2025, Amazon has provided yearly pay reviews and wage increases at its metro Vancouver locations. Hanvelt said the question was whether Amazon had breached Sec. 45 last September by not providing the 2025 pay increases to YVR2 that it had given at other locations….

“I find that this was a change from business as usual for the purposes of Section 45 and constitutes a breach of the Code,” Hanvelt wrote. Sec. 45 (1) (b), says that an employer can’t increase or decrease wages, or alter another term of employment, until either a new contract is signed or a year following certification, whatever comes first….

Now you know. Amazon’s 2025 lobby spend trends, next up — down here in the USA. Stay tuned, while the March Madness rumbles onward on your tee-vees. Heh.

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