2nd August 2004, 5:43 PM
Quote:Quebec Wal-Mart may become unionized
Last Updated Mon, 02 Aug 2004 21:24:57 EDT
SAGUENAY, QUE. - A Wal-Mart store in Quebec could become the first unionized store in the retail chain following a decision by the Quebec Labour Relations Board.
On Monday, the Board accredited the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to represent workers at the store in Jonquiere.
There are no unionized Wal-Mart stores. But some meat workers at a Wal-Mart in Texas have joined the United Food And Commercial Workers.
"We are reviewing the decision," Andrew Pelletier, spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, told the Associated Press. "There was no vote held in the store. This appeared to be an automatic certification, and employees were not given the opportunity to vote on the issue on unionization in a democratically held election, which is of enormous concern."
Written by CBC News Online staff
I read another article in the paper today about a Wal-Mart in Saskatchewan that was doing the same thing, and they had enough signatures on their petition to begin union hearings and hold a vote. The Wal-Mart in Saskatchewan in an area where support for unions is extremely high, it's in the town that was at the heart of the workers movement in Saskatchewan wich led the the election of the first socialist government in North America. In addition Saskatchewan labour laws are very union freindly and make setting up a union very easy in comparison to other jurisdictions in North America.
A Wal-Mart in Manitoba recently voted somthing like 51% against unionizing and 49% in favour.
When Wal-Mart moved into Canada by taking over the Wolco chain(basically a Canadian version of Wal-Mart) there were only 2 stores that didn't remain open. One in Lethbrige, Alberta because it was downtown, and the other in Trail, British Columbia. Wal-Mart provided no explanation as to why they closed the one in Trail, but it happened to be the only Wolco that was unionized.
I think unionization would be a good thing, but I was wondering what other peoples opion on this was, especially Weltal's since he has an insiders perspective.