‘The corollary of a remedial certification order should not be an automatic direction that a first collective agreement be determined by arbitration’
The British Columbia Labour Relations Board has ruled that Amazon Canada Fulfillment Services must settle its first collective agreement with Unifor, Local 114 through binding arbitration.
The board found that the company's own bargaining conduct — layered on a prior remedial certification for anti-union activity — justified taking away its right to lock out employees.
Associate Chair Andres Barker issued the decision, rejecting Amazon's request to let the parties test their positions through strike or lockout. He ordered instead that the agreement be concluded through arbitration by a single arbitrator, to be chosen by the parties within seven days or appointed by the Board.
Barker found that Amazon's conduct before and after its 2025 remedial certification — including a "lengthy and pervasive anti-union campaign" and a later breach of the Code's wage-freeze provisions — had undermined Unifor's ability to reach a deal through free bargaining.
He added that the finding should not be read as an automatic penalty tied to the certification itself, writing that "the corollary of a remedial certification order should not be an automatic direction that a first collective agreement be determined by arbitration." Each case, he said, turns on its own facts.
The bargaining dispute
A mediator appointed under Section 55 of the Labour Relations Code had already concluded in June that the parties could not reach a deal on their own, pointing to Amazon's proposals on productivity, quality and attendance management. The mediator found Amazon sought to have the union accept current policies as reasonable while reserving the right to change them to match its non-union sites elsewhere.
The mediator wrote that this approach "neuters the union from any input into these topics even though its members apparently have issues with them," and that tying the terms to other locations "essentially creates arbitral immunity." He was also critical of Amazon's delay in tabling a wage proposal, finding it "materially slowed the pace of bargaining."
Amazon argued this was simply hard bargaining, not bad faith, and that an employer is entitled to say "no" to proposals it opposes. The Board found the same result was independently justified under the Board's long-standing Yarrow Lodge test, which allows imposed arbitration where a dispute is "bitter and protracted" enough that a settlement on the parties' own is unlikely.
The Charter argument
Amazon also argued that denying it the right to lock out violated its freedom of expression under section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, citing a 2016 Ontario decision on back-to-work legislation.
The Board accepted that a lockout could engage section 2(b) values in principle. However, it found that ordering arbitration in this case reflected "a proportional balancing of the statutory objectives of Section 55 against the Charter right at issue," given Amazon's conduct and the purpose of first-contract arbitration.
In a press release, Unifor National President Lana Payne uttered strong words, saying: “workers have basic rights and deserve respect. We’re going to fight for justice at YVR2 and anywhere else workers form a union.”
