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Saskatchewan Labour Board certifies union at Wal-Mart in Weyburn
REGINA - After a bitter, four year legal battle, a Wal-Mart store in Weyburn, Sask., has been officially unionized.
The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board has ruled the majority of the retail giant's employees in Weyburn are now certified as a unit of the United Food and Commercial Workers and Wal-Mart must bargain collectively with the union.
Union leaders applauded the ruling Tuesday and called on Wal-Mart to respect the rights of the workers at the Weyburn store, 110 kilometres southeast of Regina.
"I want to welcome our newest members and congratulate the workers for standing up to Wal-Mart," said Paul Meinema, president of UFCW Local 1400.
"This has been a long time coming and it is a victory for them and for all Wal-Mart workers."
The labour board is considering two other union certification applications in Saskatchewan for Wal-Mart stores in North Battleford and Moose Jaw.
Andrew Pelletier, a Wal-Mart vice-president, said the company will ask the labour board to reconsider its ruling.
Pelletier said only 29 of its 104 sales employees in Weyburn were on staff when the union first submitted its certification application on April 19, 2004.
Wal-Mart said the labour board should allow employees to vote by secret ballot on whether they want a union.
"We are disappointed that our associates in Weyburn were not given the chance to vote on whether or not their store would become unionized," Pelletier said from Toronto.
"There is no indication that there is any widespread support for the union based on the numbers."
Pelletier said unions are targeting Wal-Mart in Quebec and Saskatchewan because both provinces have union-friendly labour laws.
"The pattern you can see here is the union has been focusing very aggressively on two jurisdictions in Canada - Quebec and Saskatchewan," he said.
In 2006, Wal-Mart unsuccessfully argued before the Supreme Court that the labour board was biased and should be prohibited from hearing cases involving unions and its stores.
Wal-Mart, which operates 310 stores in Canada and more than 4,000 around the world, has largely resisted union drives.
The retailer closed two outlets in Quebec after workers decided to unionize. Last summer, employees at one of those outlets won an arbitrator-imposed contract, becoming its only location in North America with a collective agreement.
Decisions are pending on whether two more outlets in Quebec will be certified.
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