Quebec: Union weighs public boycott of Wal-Mart

[BrklynLiberal]

Wal-Mart is closing store because its workers unionized.

Union weighs public boycott of Wal-Mart

Quebec minister set to impose arbitrator; two Gatineau outlets receive bomb threats

BERTRAND MAROTTE - With a report from Canadian Press
Saturday, February 12, 2005

MONTREAL -- The bitter conflict pitting unionized workers in the remote Quebec town of Jonquière against Wal-Mart reached a flashpoint yesterday as labour leaders vowed to ratchet up their fight against the U.S. retail colossus and bomb threats forced the evacuation of two of its stores in Gatineau.
Wal-Mart's decision to shut its store in Jonquière, where unionized workers were trying to negotiate the first collective agreement in North America with the retailer, will be challenged aggressively on several fronts, union officials in Quebec, Ontario and the United States said yesterday.
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Some unions and social-action groups had urged a national boycott of Wal-Mart stores. But it was decided that such a move would be counterproductive in light of attempts to win union accreditation or a first collective agreement at other Wal-Mart stores, said Henri Massé, president of the Quebec Federation of Labour.

He would not rule out the possibility of a boycott later. But he said the focus now is to put pressure on the Quebec government to enforce the law that requires the company to sit down to forced arbitration over a first contract at Jonquière, despite Wal-Mart's decision to close the store in May.

Quebec's comparatively high rate of unionization in North America is an advantage to be exploited in the push to organize Wal-Mart workers, Mr. Massé said.

"We can't take ourselves for the centre of the universe. But I'm confident one day that Wal-Mart will be unionized in North America and the effort will be spearheaded in Quebec."

In Quebec City, Labour Minister Michel Després said he will impose an arbitrator if the company and the union can't agree on one by the end of next week. Under Quebec labour law, unique in North America, a government-appointed arbitrator can impose a contract if the two sides fail to agree on one. The government cannot force Wal-Mart to keep the store open, however.
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Wal-Mart announced on Wednesday it is shutting the three-year-old Jonquière store, putting 190 employees out of work. The world's largest retailer said the outlet could not meet its financial targets because of unreasonable demands from the union, but insisted the decision had nothing to do with the fact a majority of its staff opted to join a union.
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Last August, Jonquière became the first Wal-Mart in North America to win union accreditation. Wal-Mart, which is fighting attempts to organize employees in other parts of Canada and in the United States, warned last October it might have to close the store.
Staff at a Wal-Mart store in Sainte-Hyacinthe, about 40 kilometres east of Montreal, have also obtained union accreditation but have yet to win a first contract.
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Critics accuse the $259-billion (U.S.) retail juggernaut of being hell-bent on crushing all attempts to unionize its employees. They also say that it drives down wages and benefits as well as prices paid to suppliers, in the process single-handedly reshaping the North American labour relations landscape.

Greg Denier, assistant to UFCW International president Joe Hansen, said the Washington, D.C.,-based union has launched an electronic petition campaign calling on Bentonville, Ark.,-based Wal-Mart to abandon plans to shutter Jonquière and "live up to the responsibilities that come with being the world's largest corporation."

The closing of the Jonquière outlet will "immediately have a chilling effect on workers but the longer-term impact will be to realize they need to have a voice and be protected," Mr. Denier said.

Wal-Mart recently launched a huge public-relations blitz to buff its image in the face of growing criticism, including websites inveighing against the "Wal-Martization" of North America, local campaigns to keep Wal-Mart stores out, and a class-action sex discrimination suit in California.

http://thestar.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/fasttrack/20050212/WALMART12?section=Retail

[dxdem]

1. I don't

shop at Wal-Mart anymore. Wal-Mart is the bane of existence. Yuck.