(Reuters circulated the following article on March 21.)
TORONTO — United Food and Commercial Workers Canada said on Monday it made another attempt to unionize workers at a Quebec-based Wal-Mart (WMT.N) store.
The UFCW said it filed two applications, one for the store in Gatineau and one for the store’s Tire and Lube Express shop, on Friday in an attempt organize Wal-Mart workers that are predominantly non-union throughout North America.
“Wal-Mart will have to get used to this,” Guy Chenier, the local’s president, said in a release. “Employees are firmly committed to improving their working and living conditions, and we are there to support them.
The UFCW got union certification at a Wal-Mart store in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, but Wal-Mart said the decision to certify the union in January was undemocratic and flawed as employees were not offered a secret ballot vote.
Less than two weeks ago, workers at a Wal-Mart store in Windsor, Ontario, voted against unionization when given the opportunity to vote through secret ballots.
“The signing of a union card is hardly democratic. A democratic process is a secret ballot process and that’s the kind of process that we would support,” said Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier.
“Any time to date that our associates have been given a chance to vote in a democratic secret-ballot process they have voted against the union every single time.”
Pelletier also said the company gets many complaints from its employees who claim to receive “unwanted and even coercive” contact at home from the union.
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retail chain, already said it will close its Jonquiere, Quebec, store in May where workers have been trying to negotiate their first contract.