Wal-Mart's auto repair workers in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec have voted to be represented by UFCW. The Quebec Labour Relations Board has now granted union certification for the repair shop. Already earlier, some 200 workers in the St-Hyacinthe Wal-Mart store were unionised.
- We are constantly working to improve the working and living conditions of Wal-Mart employees, and we will persevere, said Yvon Bellemare, president of UFCW Local 501 and the union's Quebec president, to CBC News
In Loveland, Colorado, Wal-Mart's repression has been stepped up after tire and lube workers were scared off from voting for union representation. Ryszard Tomtas, a former Solidarnosc activist from Poland, chained himself to a traffic sign outside the Wal-Mart store and announced that he would go on hunger strike.
Tomtas told ABC News that he had been fired for signing a UFCW union card. He has filed a complaint against Wal-Mart with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Solidarnosc, his former trade union in Poland, suffered from repression and union busting by the communist regime, acting under Soviet orders. Now, Ryszard Tomtas encounters a similar approach by the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart.
Posted by UFCW 227 at March 14, 2005 05:17 PM