Wal-Mart workers in Quebec win union recognition

Posted to the IUF website 05-Aug-2004

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In a breakthrough development, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has been accredited to represent workers at a Wal-Mart store in the Canadian province of Quebec. The Quebec Labour Relations Board issued accreditation after a majority of the workers at the Jonqui�re outlet of this notoriously anti-union retail chain signed UFCW Canada membership cards. See the UFCW Canada press release.

Following the hearing which has been scheduled to determine the scope of UFCW representation in the store, and barring an attempt by the company to appeal the QLRB decision, UFCW Local 503 will soon be able to begin negotiating a first agreement on behalf of Wal-Mart Jonqui�re workers, whose major issues include the lack of fixed work schedules and formal wage scales.

UFCW Canada currently has recognition applications pending for 2 Wal-Mart stores in the province of Saskatchewan and 1 each in British Columbia and Manitoba. In 2000, meat cutters at a Wal-Mart in the US state of Texas voted for UFCW representation, but the company has refused to negotiate with the union, even after the National Labor Relations Board ordered it to do so in 2003 (click here for the IUF story).

For more on how Wal-Mart's corporate vision threatens to set standards affecting the lives and livelihoods of workers and their families on a global scale, and the union struggle to reverse this trend, see Inside the Global Sweatshop: Wal-Mart and the California Supermarket Strike published on the IUF website in February 2004.