Wal-Mart Faces Another Union Vote in Canada
Labor relations are again boiling for
Wal-Mart
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in Canada, as workers at a store in Windsor, Ontario, will vote on whether to unionize as early as next week.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) said Wednesday it filed an application for certification with the Ontario Labor Relations Board, and an employee vote on whether to be represented by the union is likely to follow soon.
Early last month, after a Canadian Wal-Mart store unionized in Jonquiere, Quebec, the company closed the store, claiming the union negotiators were making unreasonable demands that threatened the store's business. Shortly after the closing, Wal-Mart Canada was ordered by the Quebec Labour Relations Commission to stop intimidating workers who want to form a union.
The commission said Wal-Mart must stop "harassing and intimidating" three employees at a store in Quebec City.
Also, three different Wal-Marts in Quebec received bomb threats in a period of two days following the closing, according to Canadian media reports.
In addition to the Jonquiere store, the UFCW has successfully unionized a store in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. The union said it has applications to certify 12 others pending with labor boards in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec.
Last week, a group of workers from the Tire & Lube Express department at Wal-Mart's Loveland, Co., location voted 17-1 against union representation. Currently, there are no Wal-Mart workers in the U.S. represented by organized labor.
Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the U.S. and the biggest retailer in the world, derives some of its competitive advantages in low labor costs. That was especially apparent throughout its recent foray into the grocery business, which prompted massive labor strikes across Southern California as traditional grocery chains attempted to cut health and other benefits to their workers in an attempt to compete.