You can unionize a store, but you can't make WM keep it open:
Employees at Wal-Mart's only unionised shop in North America were told that their organising drive makes team effort "impossible" and that the store may shut down if an agreement is not soon reached with the union.Readers, if you don't like these completely legal tactics, don't shop at WM.The Jonqui�re outlet, 500 km northeast of Montreal, employs about 170 people and has been unionised since August.
Wal-Mart Canada has expressed impatience waiting for contract talks to begin...
"If the store can't be efficient and profitable," warned a company release, "it's possible that the store will close." The union insists Wal-Mart's hourly workers make just less than the average supermarket employee in salaries and benefits.
The employees in this store really are at each other's throats:
There has been angry name-calling by workers riven into pro-union and anti-union factions and accusations of intimidation by managers and threats of a lawsuit by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union....The buzz at the Jonquiere store is no accident. It is just the current focus in a larger chess game, waged by labor organizers in stores scattered across Canada � including two other Wal-Marts in Quebec, where union spokesman Michael Forman said employees have also applied to the provincial labor board for union certification...
Their clandestine discussions were almost out of character in a region where union membership has long been worn proudly.
While union membership levels have declined in the United States to about 13 percent of the labor force, about a third of Canadian workers are unionized. Quebec is even higher, with about 41 percent of its workers in unions.
''You can't live in Jonquiere � and not have a friend or a relative, a wife or a husband or a father who is unionized,'' says Serge Lemelin, a reporter for regional newspaper Le Quotidien. ''It's a chateau-fort � a kind of fortress for the unions here.''
Even so, the talk about a union did not win universal support in the new Wal-Mart, with some workers worried it might cost them their jobs, others rejecting the idea of paying union dues.
Here's the text of the entire WM release:
Wal-Mart Canada issues statement regarding union situation in Jonquiere, Quebec
Company concerned about economic viability of the Jonquiere store,
urges labour-relations process to move forward quickly.
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 13 /CNW/ - Wal-Mart Canada today issued the
following statement with respect to the union situation in Jonquiere, Quebec.
It has been several weeks since the Jonquiere store was automatically
certified with the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), but no
communication from the union has been received with regard to beginning talks
with the company. The Jonquiere store is not meeting its business plan, and
the company is concerned about the economic viability of the store. Wal-Mart
Canada believes the unresolved labour situation at the Jonquiere store is
proving detrimental to improving the performance of the store.
Since the UFCW union has not communicated at all with Wal-Mart Canada,
the company has issued a letter to the union (Local 503) urging that a meeting
take place with the union on October 26 to begin the labour-relations process,
for the following reasons:
- The Wal-Mart associates in Jonquiere know their store is not meeting
its business goals, and they would like the labour-relations process
to move forward as quickly as possible so they can have certainty over
operating conditions at the store.
- Wal-Mart Canada is concerned about the fractured environment in the
Jonquiere store resulting from the exclusion of more than 30 hourly
workers from the bargaining unit. This makes it difficult to operate
the store in a collaborative team environment. This exclusion of
workers was described as having no "rational" or "defensible" basis in
the British Columbia Labour Relations Board's decision to dismiss this
same union's application for certification of the Wal-Mart store in
Terrace, B.C.
- The failure of the union to contact us to begin negotiations is
causing anxiety and uncertainty among our associates in Jonquiere.
To this end, Wal-Mart Canada has issued the letter to the union
requesting that the labour-relations process begin as soon as possible so that
these matters can be addressed.
The Jonquiere store was automatically certified with the United Food and
Commercial Workers union (UFCW) on August 2 on the basis of signed union cards submitted by the union to the Quebec Labour Commission. Wal-Mart associates in the Jonquiere store rejected this same union in a democratic, secret-ballot vote that was held on April 2 of this year.
Wal-Mart Canada employs more than 65,000 Canadians and has been ranked Canada's best retail employer twice during the past three years by
international human-resources firm Hewitt Associates and Report on Business
Magazine. The company is committed to community involvement and has
contributed more than $35 million to Canadian charities. Wal-Mart Canada was
established in 1994, is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, and operates
234 Wal-Mart discount stores and six SAM'S CLUBS in Canada.
For further information: Contact Andrew Pelletier, (905) 821-2111, ext
4585
Posted by Kevin on October, 26 2004 at 10:36 AM
