VANCOUVER — The drive to unionize Wal-Mart stores in Canada has picked up a group of workers at the auto-service departments of seven British Columbia outlets of the world's largest retailer.
The United Food and Commercial Workers said Monday it has applied to represent the employees at Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express in Terrace, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Quesnel, Kamloops, the Victoria suburb of Langford and Guildford Mall in Surrey.
These Wal-Mart employees have expressed real interest in joining our union, and were brave enough to sign union cards despite their employer's well-documented hostility towards unions,” said Brooke Sundin, president of UFCW Canada Local 1518.
Mr. Sundin, whose union has 26,000 members in B.C. and 230,000 across Canada, expressed optimism that the provincial Labour Relations Board will quickly hold a certification vote.
The labour board last month dismissed a UFCW application to represent workers at the Terrace Wal-Mart, ruling that the union lacked sufficient support to warrant a vote.
Elsewhere in Canada, Wal-Mart is in negotiations with the UFCW at its first unionized store, in Jonquiere, Que., 250 kilometres north of Quebec City.
Workers at Wal-Marts in the Quebec communities of Longueuil and St-Hyacinthe have also filed for certification.
Wal-Mart, which entered Canada in 1994, has 230 Canadian outlets staffed by more than 60,000 “associates.”