Wal-Mart faces first unionized work force

[idlisambar]

A foot in the door?

MONTREAL : Quebec officials have accredited a trade union at a Wal-Mart in the French-speaking province, raising the possibility of the first unionized work force at a branch of the retail giant in North America.

The Quebec Labour Relations board gave the go-ahead for union representation for more than 150 workers at the store in Saguenay, 200 kilometres (140 miles) north of Quebec City.

"It's the first union at a Wal-Mart in North America," said Marie-Josee Lemieux, president of the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

"I hope that (Wal-Mart) will accept the decision and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement," Lemieux said.

The firm still has the option to challenge the commission's ruling.
.....

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/98947/1/.html

[enki23]

1. i assume they'll be closing that one, then.

don't want that "disease" to spread throughout the system. pretty soon walmart might have to do crazy things like... abide by labor laws.

[TO Kid]

2. Same old story...

Once again, a Wal-Mart gets unionized even though the employees voted against it. Last time, the Ontario Labour Relations Board certified a union in their Windsor store after employees rejected the union by a 3:1 margin, then was decertified after the union was caught rigging a second vote a year later.

http://money.canoe.ca/News/Other/2004/08/02/566742-cp.html

[Solon]

3. Have you ever worked at a Wal Mart?

If you even mentioned forming a Union in the store, they fire you, simple as that. Not to mention the intimidation techniques used when a Union vote is put up. You wouldn't believe the shit that managers will do to make the vote go their way. They cut hours, or switch your hours, threaten you with termination or cut in benefits, what little benefits they offer. They even threatened to CHARGE ME with shoplifting from the store if I didn't shut up about the disinformation in their "Educational videos" about Unions. Considering that I never even thought about stealing from the store, I didn't back down, so they did everything in their power to make me quit using all of the techniques described above. Eventually, I quit in disgust, simply stopped showing up, those bastards are fucking ASSHOLES and should be shut down!!!

[Bowline]

4. There is a simple answer to the dilemma.

Don't work for Wal-Mart. If you don't like their labor practices then leave and go work for a company that has labor practices more in line with your beliefs. K-Mart? Target? One of the other thousands and thousands of companies doing business in the U.S.?

If Wal-Mart suddenly had major difficulty staffing it's stores because no one would work for them due to their labor policies then you can be damn sure those polices would change.

[TO Kid]

5. Worked for worse, actually

If you think Wally's is bad, try working for any family-owned retail business. I was manager at a camera shop that the owners treated as a personal fiefdom, they were millionaires (inherited, not earned) who had no clue how to run a business. They owned eleven franchises at the time, a decade later there were only three still open.

[DelawareValleyDem]

6. More on Wal-Mart

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&ncid=1896&e=9&u=/nm/20040803/us_nm/retail_walmart_wages_dc_2

[Lefty48197]

7. This may be a way to get rid of all the Walmart. Unionize and they'll pack

up and leave.

[DocSavage]

8. What?

So wal-mart leaves, how many people will be out of work then? Even if the jobs are part time, they are still jobs and a store that is open 12 hours per day does not hire the same # of folks as a store that is open 24 does.