Amazon used AI to score union risk at Canadian warehouses

Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 1.41% used an artificial-intelligence tool called Atlas to give its Canadian warehouses a "labour risk" score that estimated how likely workers were to unionize, according to internal documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. The documents came out during hearings between Amazon and Unifor at the British Columbia Labour Relations Board. They describe Atlas being used in recent years at more than 50 warehouses in the United States, Canada and Europe.theglobeandmail.com

The documents surfaced while Amazon and Unifor are still fighting over a first contract at YVR2 in Delta, B.C. It is the only unionized Amazon warehouse in Canada, with about 800 workers, The Regional reported.tradingview.com

How the scoring worked

The documents describe Atlas as a "labour risk framework" built on hundreds of data points. Amazon used it to evaluate "emerging workforce issues," "labour union targets" and "internal or external labour threats," The Globe reported. Each site was ranked on a five-tier scale. A second score, from 100 to 900, estimated how likely a facility was to vote for a union, and lower scores meant higher risk. YVR2 was rated Tier 1, with a score of 169.theglobeandmail.com

Amazon counted active union card signings, protests and walkouts as "high severity" events. YVR2 had 52 such events and the nearby YVR3 warehouse had 47, the most of any Amazon sites. Earlier reports on the same documents by Computer Weekly found that 16 sites in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. were rated Tier 1.computerweekly.com

Competing interpretations

The documents are not dated. Justin Gniposky, Unifor's director of organizing, estimated they were from late 2024 or early 2025. "This information just proves to us what we have always thought and what we have always heard from workers: that Amazon views unionization as a threat and a risk to its business," he told The Globe.theglobeandmail.com

Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson rejected the idea that Atlas is a surveillance tool. He said it uses data about workers' daily experience, such as safety incidents, leadership availability and training completion. "Interpreting this feedback requires human review, not automated decision-making," he said. He did not say whether Atlas is still in use in Canada. Vancouver employment lawyer Menachem Freedman noted that B.C. privacy law requires employers to tell workers in advance what personal information they collect and why.

A bitter first-contract fight

The B.C. Labour Relations Board certified the YVR2 union in July 2025. On Aug. 4, 2026, it ordered binding arbitration for a first agreement, ADR Journal reported. Amazon has appealed that order, according to The Globe. Unifor says the two sides gave the arbitrator their closing arguments on Oct. 16, according to its YVR2 member updates.warehouseworkersunite.ca+2

Amazon has also raised its average base wage in Canada by $1, to $26.27 an hour. Unifor called the raise a sign that Amazon was "feeling the heat," The Globe reported. The leaked training materials also coach managers on how to talk to workers about unions without breaking labour law. One tells them, "You can't spy, but stick to your routines if they are truly routines."theglobeandmail.com