Workers at Canada’s only unionized Amazon warehouse rallied outside the Delta, B.C. facility on Aug. 12, demanding the provincial labour board release the results of a recent vote to boot their union.

The protest, which drew about 40 employees, marks the latest chapter in a precedent-setting, two-year battle at the YVR2 fulfillment centre.

The dispute has left a faction of frustrated workers caught between Unifor and Amazon — an employer the labour board has repeatedly penalized for violating provincial labour laws.

At the centre of the rally are sealed ballots from a July 2026 decertification vote by a group of employees.

Unifor challenged the vote, alleging Amazon illegally assisted the decertification drive.

Under standard B.C. labour law procedures for disputed elections, the B.C. Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) sealed the ballot boxes pending a formal hearing into the union’s allegations.

For the organizers, it is a frustrating repeat of history.

In May 2024, workers voted on whether to unionize, but those ballots were also sealed after union complaints of employer misconduct.

“Democracy does not end when a ballot is cast. It ends when that ballot is counted,” read an Aug. 11 press release distributed by the displeased workers.

Priyanka Sharma, a process assistant who has worked at Amazon for nine years and helped organize the recent petition, says employees feel silenced.

“Two times we did a vote, and one time we did the petition. They are not listening to us,” she said in an interview, adding that she feels the workplace is safe and management is approachable without third-party representation. “We just want to hear our result.”

The facility was unionized in July 2025 through a remedial certification. The BCLRB ruled that Amazon’s “deliberate, calculated, and pervasive” anti-union campaign made a fair vote impossible, installing the union without opening the 2024 ballots.

Unifor’s Director of Organizing Justin Gniposky said the union understands the workers’ frustrations but argues their anger is misdirected at the union rather than at a “serial lawbreaker” employer.

He pointed to a BCLRB ruling earlier this year that found Amazon illegally withheld a company-wide wage increase from Delta workers for six months to punish them for union organizing while paying the raise to employees in other facilities. Unifor said the e-commerce giant owed roughly $1 million. Following that, the labour board’s ruling ordered the company to pay back the employees.

Additionally, Gniposky says a neutral mediator recently found Amazon deliberately stalled contract negotiations in bad faith. He argued the company’s legal team refused to compromise on basic provisions, aiming to run down the clock to the one-year mark to trigger this exact decertification push.

“If you allow one company to break the law, it says to every company that it’s okay to break the law because they have a billion dollars. You can break the law in Canada and mistreat employees. We’re not going to do that,” said Gniposky.

“The problem is this employer has control of the workplace. They poisoned the well, and they continually do it. And they feed people misinformation,” he added.

Gniposky alleged that employees could have felt pressured to sign the decertification petition because shop-floor leaders collected the signatures in the presence of management. “Because if you don’t want to be outed as a union supporter. You’re going to sign the paper and move forward.”

“These guys [Amazon] are dead set on making sure that anyone who supports the union’s voice is muzzled and quieted.”

Sharma, representing employees who voted to decertify Unifor, claims the petition signatures were collected outside work and during non-working hours.

She is frustrated by the slow progress of reaching a collective agreement since Unifor entered the picture. She believes many employees are satisfied with Amazon’s working conditions and prefer to negotiate directly with the employer.

The rally comes just days after the BCLRB dealt another blow to Amazon.

On Aug. 4, the board ordered the two parties into binding arbitration to force a first collective agreement, concluding Amazon’s bargaining behaviour caused the impasse.

After this decision, the legal right to go on strike or lock out employees is prohibited.

Amazon has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding Wednesday’s rally.

However, Gniposky notes the business has consistently opposed the board’s interventions and is actively appealing the board’s rulings.

When the arbitrator presents the collective agreement, it will be the first of its kind for workers at Amazon in North America. A similar effort in Quebec collapsed after Amazon shut down all seven provincial facilities in January 2025.

“Doesn’t matter if the union is coming or Amazon is coming,” said Sharma. “It should be our decision, not the B.C. labour board, Unifor, or Amazon.”