Amazon's Fragile Neoliberal Fordism and the Challenges for Labor Organizing in Canada

In this chapter, I examine the spatial constraints Amazon is confronted with in its logistics operations within Canada and specifically in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. I argue that central to Amazon's production of logistics work space has been the construction of its own internal labor regime to buttress the effects of Amazon's response to state regulatory constraints, federal and provincial, on its production regime. Amazon seeks to balance the harmful effects of digital Taylorism on workers through what I call “corporate Keynesianism.” Yet, this was insufficient to prevent union organizing, and the company opted to close operations in the province altogether in the wake of a union organizing victory, with claims-making over the impact still pending. The chapter draws on ethnographic research as a community organizer supporting Amazon workers and semi-structured interviews with workers, trade union representatives, and public policy experts.