Amazon worker’s widow wants ‘meaningful change’ for all families

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The widow of a worker at a London-area Amazon plant who died after he collapsed at work says it’s a relief the Ministry of Labour will share the results of its probe into her husband’s death.

But Sheila Albuquerque said she hopes the ministry’s decision to spare her from making a freedom-of-information (FOI) request can lead to a bigger change for grieving families. 

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Albuquerque, who is in Brazil with her two-year-old son, said she hopes her experience turns into “meaningful change” for families who lost a loved one in the workplace or might face this in the future.

“It’s a relief to get this help,” she said Monday. “But it would be meaningful if a change could reach more families, not just mine to get access to these documents…especially in a moment of so much pain, you have to deal with this barrier to file a request that’s an obstacle and hard to understand with so much jargon.”

The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development began investigating the death of Paulo DeSouza Bezerra, Albuquerque’s husband, after he died Jan. 15, 2024. 

The ministry completed its investigation in December but told Albuquerque she had to file a freedom-of-information request to obtain the results because they are only shared with the worker, the company and the union. 

The ministry had been under pressure from politicians and the Ontario Federation of Labour after The Free Press reported last week Albuquerque had been told she had to file an FOI request to get the results of the ministry’s probe investigation into her husband’s death. 

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DeSouza Bezerra, 51, collapsed at Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Talbotville, south of London, on Jan. 14, 2024. A company spokesperson said DeSouza Bezerra and other employees were warming up in a break room after a fire alarm forced staff out of the giant facility at about 11:10 p.m. for roughly 17 minutes in -20 C wind chill temperatures.

After being contacted last Friday by The Free Press, the ministry sent a statement saying it is making an exception in Albuquerque’s case, and she won’t have to file an FOI. 

“The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is working to provide the spouse with the results of the investigation. We will expedite the process while ensuring sensitive information is handled appropriately according to privacy laws and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.”

Albuquerque said she had not heard from the ministry as of Monday. The Free Press contacted the ministry to ask when it planned to get in touch with her and why the exception was made in this case but didn’t receive a response in time for publication. 

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Albuquerque and DeSouza Bezerra, married for more than 24 years, immigrated to Canada from Brazil in 2010. They had a son a couple of years ago after many years of trying to start a family. The couple moved to London from Toronto in the summer of 2023 to find better jobs and housing. DeSouza Bezerra started working at Amazon in October 2023 when the sorting facility opened, three months before his death.

In a statement to The Free Press on Thursday, Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said the company hasn’t received the ministry’s official report, but “co-operated fully with their investigation” and “followed the appropriate procedure when the event occurred.”

She added: “We continue grieving the loss of our colleague, and our thoughts remain with his family and loved ones.”

Albuquerque said she plans to return to Canada in the spring.

“When I go back to Canada, I’ll deal with this, but I needed a break, in a way, to protect me and to be able to go through Christmas and this one year without Paulo in the least painful way possible,” she said. “Because the pain doesn’t go away, the memory doesn’t go away, you know? But we try to survive, right? I’ve got to do this for Logan.”

bbaleeiro@postmedia.com

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