This is an article I wrote about the May 7th Day of Action against Wal-mart. Hopefully in the next couple days we will be able to get some pictures of the Saskatoon picket on the site.

-tyler

Saskatoon – On Saturday, May 7th, approximately two hundred labour and community activists gathered outside the new Preston Ave Wal-Mart to meet and greet shoppers.

As part of demonstrations organized across the country by the Canadian Labour Congress and local Labour Councils at 43 stores across Canada, the day of action firmly pronounced community and union disgust with  Wal-Mart's unethical (and illegal) union-busting.

On April 29th, leaving 190 people jobless, Walmart closed its store in Jonquiére, Quebec, one of only two unionized Wal-marts in North America. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) accuses Wal-mart of being rabidly anti-union; Wal-mart claims, however, economics forced it to close the store as it was unable to reach a tentative agreement with the union that would "permit it to operate the store in an efficient and profitable matter."

In response, labour activists distributed their own brand of coupons outside Walmarts across the nation. These ‘coupons’ denounced Wal-mart’s labour practices domestically closing unionized stores while posting $12 billion dollars in profits, as well as abroad as Wal-mart is a major retailer of foreign-made sweat-shop goods. They further criticized how the company siphons money out of communities, destroying local economies: for every two jobs Wal-mart creates, three are destroyed. 

The Jonquiere closure is not the first union the company has forced out. Recently the courts have forced Wal-mart to disclose union-busting manuals, titled A Manager's Toolbox to Remaining Union Free, provided to managers within the chain. The company has evolved techniques that successfully defeated union certification at stores such as those in Thompson, Manitoba, Windsor, Ontario, Brossard, Quebec, and North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

In fact, in 1997 a Windsor Wal-Mart previously became the first in North America to earn union certification as a local within the United Steelworkers of America (later within the Canadian Autoworkers Union). Yet this victory only occurred after an Ontario labour board ruled that the company was guilty of unfair labour practices during the organizating drive. In 2000, after lengthy legal and labour relations battles, whereby no collective agreement was reached, the union local collapsed.

Only one Wal-mart, in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, remains unionized in North America, and it still lacks a collective agreement. About a dozen further Wal-mart outlets are facing certification in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Quebec. However, the closure threatens to undermine organizing efforts, intimidating workers.

In fact, Jonquiere Wal-Mart employees initially feared just such a result. Unionized in the fall of 2004, Jonquiere employees narrowly voted against unionizing in the previous spring because they feared the store would close. Following unionization, a Wal-mart spokesperson, Andrew Pelletier, spoke to CBC about these concerns. On August 3, 2004 following union certification, he stated, "What I can tell you is that we wouldn't close a store because it became unionized. The only reason we would close a store would be due to economic reasons — specifically if expenses in a store exceeded revenues." 

UFCW Canada national director Michael Fraser believes Wal-Mart's decision to close the Jonquière store was meant as a warning to Wal-Mart employees thinking of unionizing. Fraser stated, "Wal-Mart, which now controls the working lives of 70,000 Canadians, made a business decision that the cost of disposing 200 men and women in Jonquière was a good long term investment in creating fear in the rest of their employees across Canada and the United States." 

UFCW alleges that the store closure is illegal under Canadian labour law. Now Wal-mart faces a possible class-action lawsuit from the former Jonquiere employees who are arguing that Wal-Mart's decision to close the store violates the workers' right of association guaranteed under the Quebec Charter of Rights.

This would not be Wal-mart’s first encounter with the law, either above or below the border. In addition, battles with labour relations boards over certifications, Wal-mart has been forced to disclose anti-union materials, and refrain from gross anti-union practices. In February, the Quebec Labour Relations Board provided the second reprimand ordering Wal-Mart Canada to stop intimidating workers who want to form a union, after store management was discovered to be demanding to know if employees were involved in union organizing and directly threatening them if they were.

In the United States, Wal-mart also recently paid a fine of $135,000 US for breaking child labour laws in Arkansas, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Wal-Mart will also pay $11 million US for its use of illegal immigrants, after two investigations found 345 illegal immigrants working as janitors at dozens of Wal-Mart stores across the States. Many of these immigrants reported working seven days straight without overtime pay, and those working overnight even reported being locked in the stores until the morning.

Union activists intend to combat Wal-mart’s exploitive relationship to workers and communities through continued efforts at unionization, while working through governments and courts to cajole Wal-mart into acting both legally and ethically with regard to workers. There are as yet no plans for a boycott of the store, as labour leaders feel this could negatively impact on unionization efforts. Wal-Mart has 235 stores in Canada, employing more than 60,000 people.

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