British Columbia's Labour Relations Board has ruled in favour of using binding arbitration to settle a labour dispute between Amazon and unionized workers at its warehouse in Metro Vancouver after the e-commerce giant fought the idea.
In a ruling issued Tuesday by associate chair Andres Barker, the board says it is ordering Amazon and Unifor — which represents the workers at the Delta, B.C., site — to "conclude their first collective agreement" through a single arbitrator.
The decision says the board will appoint an arbitrator if the two parties don't agree on one within seven days.
Amazon rejected a mediator's recommendations for arbitration in June, saying it wanted to continue the process of direct negotiation with Unifor, which included the right to strike or lockout.
The board ruled in February that Amazon violated the provincial labour code in its treatment of unionized workers at the warehouse in Delta that left them out of scheduled pay increases that the companies workers received elsewhere.
Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson said they are appealing the decision and want the board to pause the arbitration until employees' decertification votes are counted.
"We've been at the bargaining table since October 2025 and reached agreement on many items and continue to believe a negotiated outcome, where employees get the final say, is the right path. Twice now, employee votes have been cast and sealed without being counted," Stephenson said in a statement.
The company will continue pushing for a process that "lets employees decide for themselves," Stephenson said.
Amazon previously described bargaining for a first contract "complex," while adding it has participated in good faith and would continue to do so.
Unifor western regional director Gavin McGarrigle says in a statement that the union applauds the decision, while criticizing Amazon's behaviour in talks, which the mediator found was the source of the impasse in bargaining.
"Amazon's behaviour has been so bad because it knows what we know: unions build worker power," McGarrigle says. "Amazon sees unions as an existential threat to ruthless and unsustainable workplace management. "
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
