North Miami Beach Wal-Mart may be first to unionize (story & video)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1016672.html

A campaign to unionize a North Miami Beach Wal-Mart store seems to be gathering steam, but pro-union workers have a tough road ahead of them.

BY SCOTT ANDRON
[e-mail]

Workers at a North Miami Beach Wal-Mart Supercenter are hoping to make their store one of the first Wal-Marts in the United States to unionize.

So far, workers say they have gathered signed pro-union cards from 150 of the store's 476 employees. Under federal labor law, that's just about enough for union supporters to demand a vote on unionization by all rank-and-file workers at the store.

If a majority of workers were to vote to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Wal-Mart would have to negotiate a contract setting pay, work rules, complaint procedures, health insurance and other benefits for the workers.

The UFCW says the North Miami Beach store is one of about 100 Wal-Mart stores it is working to organize in 15 states.

But workers at the North Miami Beach store may have a long road ahead of them. They almost certainly will need to collect signed cards from a lot more than the 30 percent minimum required by law. That's because Wal-Mart could ask federal labor officials to throw out some of the cards for various reasons.

Even if the National Labor Relations Board orders an election, companies typically try to delay as long as possible. Meanwhile, the company can order workers to attend anti-union meetings and watch anti-union videos on company time, while the unions may only drum up support among workers during breaks and off hours.

Pro-union workers say the company is harassing them, demanding to know the views of individual employees, and pressuring them to identify union supporters. Wal-Mart says it doesn't engage in such practices, which would violate federal labor law.

FULL story and video at link.