For most people, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a disaster. By all accounts it has exacerbated income inequality, imperiled workers forced to put up with unsafe conditions to keep their jobs, and increased the ranks of the working poor, unable to afford housing and food. The hardship has, however, not been evenly distributed.

Amazon is one of the many companies that has done well during the pandemic. In April, the Financial Times reported that the multinational conglomerate had recorded two successive quarters of over $100 billion in sales. The company’s profits have more than tripled over the course of the last year and a half.

Having weathered the pandemic, Amazon now faces a new threat. The Teamsters’ union has launched organizing drives in at least nine of its fourteen Canadian facilities. If successful, these unionization drives would mark a watershed moment for organized labor in North America. To date, no attempt to unionize an Amazon warehouse has been successful in Canada or the United States.