Wal-Mart: Union forces store closing
Associated PressPublished February 10, 2005
NEW YORK - In the latest salvo in a long-running battle between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and organized labor, the company said Wednesday it will close a Canadian store where about 200 workers are near winning the first union contract from the world's largest retailer.
Wal-Mart said it was shuttering the store in Jonquiere, Quebec, in response to unreasonable demands from union negotiators that would make it impossible for the store to sustain its business. The United Food & Commercial Workers Canada last week asked Quebec labor officials to appoint a mediator, saying that negotiations had reached an impasse.
"We were hoping it wouldn't come to this," said Andrew Pelletier of Wal-Mart Canada. "Despite nine days of meetings over three months, we've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably."
Pelletier said the store will close in May. The retailer had discussed closing the store in October, saying it was losing money.
Union leaders promised to fight the move, and rejected Wal-Mart's stated reasons for closing the store.
"Wal-Mart has fired these workers not because the store was losing money but because the workers exercised their right to join a union," Michael Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, said. "Once again, Wal-Mart has decided it is above the law and that the only rules that count are their rules."
Wal-Mart's decision to close the store reflects the retailer's deeply rooted aversion to unions, and its worries that organized labor had nearly established a beachhead, said Burt Flickinger III of Strategic Resource Group, a consulting firm specializing in retailing and consumer goods.
But the move could backfire for a company that has worked hard recently to counter a wave of bad publicity and portray itself as a generous employer, he said.
"They're trying to snuff it out but it may be self-defeating," Flickinger said. "The store closing may potentially catalyze the combination of the government (officials in Canada), organized labor and consumers working together against Wal-Mart."
Some employees at the store said they believed it was closing because of their agreement to join the union and several cried as they left the store. They told Radio-Canada TV that managers made the announcement Wednesday morning and they had not been allowed to ask questions.
"Many people cried, including myself," said Claudia Tremblay, a cashier who abstained from the vote. "I'm a mother of two children and I'm separated from my husband. It's very difficult."
The store in Jonquiere, about 240 miles northeast of Montreal, became the first unionized Wal-Mart store in North America in September. Since then, workers at a second Quebec store have been granted union status. Neither had reached a contract.