Canada Supreme Court Clears Way for Wal-Mart Union

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/23/canada-supreme-court-clears-way-for-wal-mart-union/

Canada Supreme Court Clears Way for Wal-Mart Union

by James Parks, Apr 23, 2007

Canada’s Supreme Court last week ended three years of legal stalling tactics by Wal-Mart and cleared the way for the Saskatchewan labor board to certify a union at the retail giant’s store there. Wal-Mart had appealed a lower court ruling authorizing the labor board to rule on applications to certify the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada to represent the workers at an outlet in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. The Supreme Court dismissed Wal-Mart’s appeal April 19. UFCW Local 1400 originally filed its application in April 2004 to represent workers at the Weyburn Wal-Mart, and the labor board’s hearings ended in December 2005 after a series of Wal-Mart challenges. “Wal-Mart has said if their workers want a union, they can have one, so Wal-Mart should now stop delaying and listen to their workers and to the courts,” said UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.

UFCW, which represents Wal-Mart workers in three Canadian towns already, has applications pending for certification to represent workers in two other Saskatchewan communities.

The effort by Wal-Mart to ignore the Weyburn workers’ decision to join a union is par for the course for the company. “The essence of Wal-Mart’s business model is cutting corners and imposing its anti-worker, anti-union rules across America and around the world,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

In 2005, Wal-Mart closed a store in Quebec where workers had voted to join the UFCW.

On April 13, 2006, the Quebec Superior Court rejected Wal-Mart’s effort to overturn the union certification at a store in St. Hyacinthe. The province’s labor relations board certified in January 2005 that workers at the store east of Montreal had chosen a union. However, Wal-Mart dragged out the recognition process through multiple litigations.

[elocs]

1. I think that ChinaMart is more than willing to bite off its nose to spite its face.

Rather than unionize in Canada I think they would pull out of the country altogether.

[Craftsman]

2. The Great Walmart Of China just might do that.