WINDSOR, Ont. - Five years after the first unionized Wal-Mart store in Canada was decertified without winning a contract, union organizers say they've signed enough workers at the same store to hold a new vote.
The United Food and Commercial Workers is asking provincial labor officials to hold a vote next week at a store in Windsor, Ont., according to a report in Thursday's edition of The Windsor Star. The union said Wednesday that more than 40 percent of workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s east Windsor location have signed union cards — the minimum required to hold a certification vote.
Wal-Mart employees want to have a voice, want to have a say in what goes on with them at work," Andrew Mackenzie, the union's national representative, said at a news conference. "They want most of all to have respect at work."
The Ontario Labour Relations Board has not yet determined a date for the vote.
Mackenzie said his union would also like to represent workers at another Wal-Mart in the city, where he says he has fielded many requests for representation.
"It's our intention to unionize Wal-Mart stores wherever workers themselves are ready to stand up and try to make it happen," he said. "And there are workers in all the stores in the area who are having those kinds of feelings."
Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier said unionization votes at his company have failed because Wal-Mart is a good employer.
"We've always respected people's rights to decide on these issues," Pelletier said, according to the Windsor Star. "But we believe it's good for our associates when they can deal directly with the company. We believe in open communication."
Workers at a Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express in Loveland, Colo., voted 17-1 against union representation on Feb. 25, rejecting efforts to establish what would have been the second union inside any Wal-Mart store in the United States.
Reaction to potential unionization among Windsor workers was mixed.
"They say we can talk to the managers whenever we want to, but it really does not happen," maintenance worker Brent Fralic said.
But Brian Dickerson, a seasonal department manager, disagreed.
"Management treats us fairly," said Dickerson. "We don't need a union."
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with more than 4,000 stores worldwide, has been facing increasing pressure to accept unionized stores, but has so far resisted.
The only two unionized Wal-Mart stores in North America are in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., and Jonquiere, Que., though neither negotiated a first contract.
Last month, Wal-Mart announced that it plans to close the Jonquiere store this spring, claiming it is unprofitable.
The organizing campaign by the UFCW is the second attempt at the Windsor store. Employees at the store voted in the 1990s against joining the United Steelworkers of America. But the Ontario labor board ruled in 1997 that the company engaged in a pattern of misconduct, and automatically certified the employees.
Workers turned down the first contract proposal. The Canadian Auto Workers (news - web sites) eventually represented them, but also failed to win a subsequent contract, and in 2000 decided to cut its losses. The union was decertified.