Wal-Mart gets slap on wrist for union-busting in Hastings

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4303

6 January 2010

HASTINGS - After being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, retail giant Wal-Mart has agreed to post a notice that it won’t violate workers’ rights at its Hastings, Minn., store.

The penalty stems from an unfair labor practice charge filed by United Food & Commercial Workers Local 789. The union said that, in the course of its metro-wide organizing campaign in the spring of 2009, a Wal-Mart corporate union buster told an employee at the Hastings store he would be fired due to his union activity.

Wal-Mart claimed the employee was a manager so their threats were legal. The National Labor Relations Board ruled against the company and issued a formal complaint.

In the settlement, Wal-Mart agreed to post a notice for 60 days in prominent locations inside the store. Under current labor law, the posting is the maximum penalty for such activity.

The notice outlines workers’ rights to unionize under federal law and states that Wal-Mart “will not in any manner frustrate your exercise of any of the above rights . . . threaten employees with termination because of their union activities . . . solicit grievances from employees in order to discourage union activity.”

FULL story at link.

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend

[Laelth]

2. k&r for labor. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Brickbat]

3. Looking forward to the day when the posting is merely one tiny part of the penalty for something

like this...

Solidarity with Local 789. I've picketed with them before; a great group of people.

[jtrockville]

4. Not much of a deterrent, eh?

The only penalty for breaking the law is that you have to abide by it?

[Brickbat]

14. Yeah -- posting something for 60 days isn't really going to do much, methinks.

[laughingliberal]

5. How can that be the maximum penalty for this type of illegal activity?

A clear violation of rights and the maximum penalty is posting a notice of worker's rights and a statement saying they won't violate them? Shouldn't there be some sort of stiffer penalties for this? We so need EFCA. Any chance that will be taken up by the legislature this year?

[Selatius]

7. EFCA will likely come to the forefront once the health care bill is signed into law.

Expect a major movement by big businesses against the EFCA within the next three to six months or however long it takes for Dems to put the issue at the front.

[laughingliberal]

11. I hope we have a chance of getting it passed

But I'm not seeing too much support for workers out of the Senate or the White House these days. I hope they surprise us on this but I'm not encouraged.

[Selatius]

13. I'm afraid EFCA is going to be watered down, like health care reform without a Public Option.

That's my worst fear.

[madokie]

6. A co worker and I campaigned for union representation where we worked

the management told us that sure you all can vote for a union but if you do we'll close the place down. Friday we had the vote, heavily in favor of joining the union, come monday morning the place was cleaned out like there never was anything ever there except for the building. The company we worked for moved the whole shebang about 50 miles across the state line over to missouri. They meant business when they told us they would close down and move. When I think about it I still feel bad about that. The jobs lost.

1971 was the year.

[Selatius]

9. Can I ask what company was this? Was it a manufacturing factory? Retail? I'm just curious. nt

[madokie]

10. Winston-Delaware was the name of the parent company

building mobile homes was their business. They employed around 100 people here at this plant but owned a good half dozen or more other plants over a three state area. The jobs were jobs of very few to be had at the time. Best I remember the highest paying job there was a little over a buck an hour. It was hard times around here then. I was fresh back from the war and feeling 10 feet tall and bullet proof. Poof went all that though

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Was Missouri a closed shop state then?

I think under the existing law in MO that would not happen today.

Good on you though.

I saw the same thing (sort of) happen at a meat packing plant in KS in the 70s. Management told the workers that if they went union, their pay would go down and there would be massive layoffs. So the workers voted against the union and then management lowered wages and there was a massive layoff.

I have been a union supporter ever since. :hi:

[MinneapolisMatt]

8. OMG I grew up there!

Disgusting Wal-Mart behavior as usual!

But the funny part is that the store was caught selling booze to minors and got a suspension for that too LOL...at least according to my parents hahahaha!

[GreenMetalFlake]

12. Good

[Omaha Steve]

15. Kick

[jmowreader]

16. There don't happen to be any empty 60-acre tracts close to Hastings, are there?

I shall tell you exactly what these worthless bugfuckers will do if the union organizes that store: They will buy a piece of land five miles outside the Hastings city limits, build a shiney new Walmart there, hire all NEW employees to work in it, get it up and running, then close the unionized store. "No, I'm sorry, we don't need any of you anymore. Pick up your final paychecks on the way out the door, please."

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Wouldn't state laws apply?

:shrug:

[jmowreader]

20. What law would cover that?

All Walmart employees are "at-will" workers--they can be fired for almost any reason. Obviously antiunion activities are one of the reasons they CAN'T explicitly be fired; there are federal laws against that. But I have this strange feeling Walmart could come up with some creative reason they had to build a new store 10 miles from the old one, open it with a completely new staff (all of whom have been thoroughly investigated to ensure they're members of the local Republican Party) and close the old one, and get away with it.

[Omaha Steve]

17. Walmart shreds clothing and gets almost 8,000 views & 132 R's

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4213264&mesg_id=4213264

I guess when they walk all over workers rights, nobody cares.