Inside the Amazon Decertification Campaign

As Amazon and Unifor approach a first collective agreement for employees in Delta, B.C., the union says the company has been supporting a decertification campaign.

For nearly a year, the two sides have been negotiating a first contract for 800 employees at the only unionized Amazon warehouse in Canada, often called YVR2.

Negotiations have been marred by accusations and legal challenges that both sides have abused the unionization process.

On Aug. 4, the British Columbia Labour Relations Board ordered both sides to head to binding arbitration for a first collective agreement. If arbitration is successful, Unifor says, YVR2 will become the first Amazon location in North America to reach a collective agreement.

Meanwhile, a decertification campaign has been stewing in the background. In June, an Instagram account called amazonianyvr2 started making posts about decertification and urging employees to vote against the union.

“B.C. Labour didn't hear our voice,” said Priyanka Sharma, one of the Amazon employees behind the account. “It should be the employees' voice that matters, not an employer, not Unifor, and not B.C. Labour.”

Sharma said she has worked at Amazon for nine years and is now a process assistant at YVR2 — what the union calls a “supervisory” role. According to Sharma, the employees who support the Instagram account are a group of about 10 to 15 people.

In July, workers voted on decertification. And on Monday, Sharma emailed The Tyee a press release from that same group calling for the original ballots on unionization to be counted.

Sharma said the group is neither for nor against unionization, although she herself does not want a union. Sharma told The Tyee she is a current union member because of the certification decision made by the Labour Relations Board.

“While the Board acted within its legal authority, many employees were left feeling that their own votes no longer mattered,” the press release said. “That feeling did not disappear.”

Unifor says the campaign is part of management’s push for decertification and alleges the employers’ support for the campaign violates labour law.

“They are doubling down on their behaviour and, unfortunately, trying to use employees as pawns,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director. “Continuing to break the law while calling themselves champions of workplace democracy is a bit of a stretch.”

Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

The union has launched a legal challenge against Amazon’s alleged involvement in decertification, arguing the company or its representatives are interfering with union administration, inducing or compelling employees to refrain from being members and refusing to bargain in good faith. The claims have not yet been tested by the board.

Back in 2024, Unifor Local 114 believed the majority of the employees at YVR2 had signed union cards. In B.C., if at least 55 per cent of a possible bargaining unit signs union cards, the board will certify the union without a vote. If at least 45 per cent sign cards, the board will order a vote on unionizing.

When the union applied for certification that spring, it went to a vote. The ballots were sealed while several other legal challenges were sorted out.

In July 2025, the Labour Relations Board ruled that Amazon had hired new employees to impede the union drive, and that the company had committed serious offences by subjecting workers to a constant barrage of anti-union messaging. The board ordered automatic certification of the warehouse.

According to Unifor’s McGarrigle, that meant the vote had been tainted by illegal activity and spoiled.

But Amazon disagreed. At the time, a company spokesperson told The Tyee Amazon planned to fight the decision, which the company said deprived workers of their right to make an informed decision. Amazon is fighting the labour board decision at the B.C. Supreme Court.

“The BCLRB’s decision to certify Unifor without counting a single vote fundamentally undermines our employees’ right to be heard,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards told The Tyee last October.

“We’ve appealed the decision because it’s wrong on the facts and the law, and because our employees should get to make this decision for themselves,” Hards said.

In the year since, negotiations for a first contract have been slow. In February, the union said Amazon was dragging its feet discussing wages and the labour board found Amazon once again broke labour laws by offering increased wages to workers at other non-unionized warehouses.

Both sides headed into mediation last March.

That’s when a decertification campaign started to form. The Instagram account amazonianyvr2’s first post on June 4 said it was an “independent group of workers sharing information about employee rights and the union decertification process.”

The post says the account was not affiliated with, directed by or influenced by company management in any way.

In the months since, posts have included posters saying that unionization has caused division among employees, called for the original unionization vote to be reviewed and said that the team is already united without a union.

In another post, the account urges workers to sign a Labour Relations Board form called “Form 33A” — an employee application for decertification. And when the decertification vote started, the account urged employees to decertify.

“I don't want a union because in Amazon, it's a very friendly environment,” Sharma said. “We have a lot of good benefits, and Amazon is providing.”

The account is named in Unifor’s unfair labour practice complaint to the board, which challenges the decertification vote. In the complaint, dated Aug. 7, Unifor claims the page was created by or in consultation with Amazon managers.

Sharma is a process assistant at YVR2, which she said means she’s responsible for assigning other employees duties for the day and ensuring they hit targets set by management. Sharma reports to upper management but supervises other floor workers.

Unifor’s McGarrigle said process assistants are included in the union but that there are ongoing discussions at the bargaining table about these roles, which he said are “largely supervisory in nature.”

Unifor adds in its complaint that Amazon has actively supported the decertification campaign through anti-union messaging and by having management approach employees at work to discuss signing forms that would have them leave the union.

The union also says the employer created a website called “YVR2 Facts” to encourage decertification.

The website includes communications on bargaining, links to the labour board’s website and an Aug. 6 video from YVR2 site leader Kurt Ellsay that says binding arbitration takes workplace issues out of the employees' hands.

“Throughout bargaining, Amazon has sought to maintain the operational model and flexibility that has made YVR2 successful and served us well,” Ellsay says in the video.

“There are no guarantees with arbitration, and we are disappointed that a third party will be deciding these issues rather than them being negotiated at the bargaining table.”

On Wednesday, more than a dozen people rallied outside YVR2, calling for the original certification vote to be reviewed.

Sharma was one of the employees at the rally.

“We just want our [vote] results from the B.C. labour board,” she said. “Whatever is coming, it should be on behalf of our votes.”

But Unifor’s McGarrigle said that while some employees might have shown up at the rally, their support for decertification is ultimately a product of Amazon’s messaging.

He said that while some employees have legitimate concerns about bargaining, the company has been spreading misinformation about the unionization process in an effort to support decertification.

“We're going to make history here in British Columbia, and Amazon doesn't like it,” he said. “It's shameful that they're trying to manipulate employees like this.”

Amazon has garnered a reputation for fighting unionization efforts across North America. In 2022, a warehouse on Staten Island, New York, became the first Amazon warehouse to unionize. Four years later, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon has refused to recognize and bargain with the union.

When 230 warehouse workers in Laval, Quebec, became the first Amazon union in Canada, the company closed all seven of its Quebec facilities and laid off thousands of employees before the union could get a first agreement.

In that province, Amazon switched to third-party parcel delivery companies to fulfil its orders.

McGarrigle added he’s confident the Labour Relations Board will recognize the company has broken labour law. He said the union is preparing for arbitration, and he expects workers to have a first collective agreement within three months.

“Every day that goes by without these workers having that agreement in place, Amazon continues to break the law,” he said. “So it's urgent that we get that agreement in place as soon as we can for them.”