Breaking: Wal-Mart Shuts Down Unionized Tire and Lube Shop in Canada

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Ufcw-Canada-910734.html

UFCW Canada

Oct 16, 2008 12:40 ETWal-Mart Canada shuts another location after workers unionize
Wal-Mart’s closure of unionized store in Gatineau is “one more example of its blatant disregard for Charter of Rights and Freedom,” says union’s National President

Attention: Assignment Editor, Business/Financial Editor, City Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwire - Oct. 16, 2008) -

The closure of a unionized Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec “is another attack on its workers, on the community, and one more example of its blatant disregard for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.

“Wal-Mart thinks a cheap oil change is more important than the Canadian constitution.”

Wal-Mart Canada announced Thursday that it was shutting the Gatineau outlet because a union contract, which came into force in August, didn’t fit with its business model. It is the second time Wal-Mart has shut a Quebec outlet after its workers decided to form a union.

In April 2005 Wal-Mart shut its store in Jonquiere, Quebec and terminated more than 200 workers just as binding arbitration for a first-contract was set to begin. Later this year the Supreme Court will hear arguments that the shutting of the Jonquiere store was a violation of those workers’ rights.

In June 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that under the Charter’s Freedom of Association protections, workers in Canada are guaranteed the right to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining, “but once again Wal-Mart has proven the only rules it respects are its own, “ said Hanley.

“For Wal-Mart to say its employees are free to unionize, but then declare that a contract produced through mediation just doesn’t work for their business model, means as far as Wal-Mart is concerned, the rights of its American shareholders are more important than the human rights of its workers in Canada.”

“Now it is up to the Supreme Court to tell Wal-Mart that it is not above the law and that it must respect the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively.”

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/For further information: www.ufcw.ca/

IN: ECONOMY, JUSTICE, LABOUR, RETAIL

For more information, please contact

Derek Johnstone, National Communications Department, UFCW CANADA
Primary Phone: 416-675-1104 ext. 222

Alex, why, exactly, did you feel people needed help getting to the story?

Im disgusted by the closing of the auto sector in Gatineau, and have decided boycott the store.  Is anyone organizing a rally or protest against this?

Alex,

What you fail to understand, is that a business has to be able to ‘compete’ to produce a profit and, that without a profit, there is no reason for a business to stay open!!  If Wal-Mart gets organized, their contract may contain pay raises, and that may cause the prices to raise to a point where they are MORE than the other non-union Tire and Lube places charge!!  As Wal-Mart has built it’s business on ‘lower prices’, ‘higher prices’ may not fall into their business model, therefore, it may no longer be feasible to keep the shop open, if they lose business!!

You seem to forget, that a business exists for the purpose of making money, not just to keep people working!!  Recently, ddrb, said that we could get the economy going again, by having people MAKE things in factories, even if they weren’t able to sell what they made, how well do you think that would work, paying people to make things that nobody will buy?  And, how well would it work to pay people to work in a TLC, when people start going elsewhere for their auto work and tires?

Two For One Friday:  John McCain Quotes of the Day:

“We have a lot of work to do. It’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.” ~ ABC News interview, July 21, 2008

Does anyone besides John McCain know where this border is?

“I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.” ~McCain referring to a country that no longer exists, Phoenix, Arizona, July 14, 2008

And this guy says he has more “foreign relations” experience?

RDS:Recently, ddrb, said that we could get the economy going again, by having people MAKE things in factories, even if they weren’t able to sell what they made, how well do you think that would work, paying people to make things that nobody will buy?~~~~RDS~~~~~~~NOTE:  Many of the countries that manufacture goods may not have the purchasing power to buy the goods themselves, but they can export them for sale to others. Look at the countries to whom we off shore the factory work-Japan and China,as examples were originally not the consumers of the goods they manufactured ,but over time the populace benefitted enough to afford some of the luxuries they produced for others,and their economy,especially China has benefitted immensely-to our detriment,because now,we export less to China than we import and there is a HUGE trade imbalance with China.

China’s loss is Alabama’s gain as firm adds U.S. jobs; Need to cut costs prompts manufacturers to rethink outsourcing policy
By Staff, Edmonton Journal
October 15th, 2008
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s worldwide quest for a lower-cost sleeping bag has led to a one-storey factory in northwest Alabama, where Chris Defoor has a new job.

The same forces that have sent thousands of American jobs overseas are now giving a lift to places like Haleyville, a town of 4,200 where Defoor is in his fourth month working at Exxel Outdoors Inc.

With costs in Alabama running three per cent below those in China, Exxel is cutting production at a joint venture in Shanghai while hiring workers, adding machines and increasing output at the 250,000 square-foot plant. This year, for the FIRST time, the company will make more bags in the U.S. than abroad.

“We’d been losing the battle to China but had a feeling things were going to change,” founder and chief executive officer Harry Kazazian said. “Call it a calculated gamble or hindsight, it’s working for us.”

The increase in production at Haleyville comes as manufacturing in the U.S. contracts at the fastest pace since 2001, during the last recession. Record exports that had supported output now are slowing as a growing number of countries grapple with the credit crisis.

Kazazian’s strategy is a result of the dollar’s 17-per-cent drop against the yuan since 2005, rising wages in China and a jump in freight rates. He projects his company’s revenue will rise as much as 20 per cent this year to $42 million from $35 million in 2007, helped by the Wal-Mart order last December for Disney-themed kids sleeping bags.

The need to cut costs means manufacturers large and small “are revisiting their outsourcing policy,” said Norbert Ore, chairman of the manufacturing-survey committee at the Institute for Supply Management in Tempe, Ariz.

Ikea, the world’s largest home-furnishings company, opened its first U.S. factory in May. Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of earth-moving equipment, and Home Depot Inc., the biggest home-improvement retailer, plan to produce or buy more goods in the U.S.

Such moves are “a positive for employment and certainly a plus for manufacturing, because those are the kind of jobs that would return,” said Michael Moran, chief economist at Daiwa Securities America Inc. in New York.

Exxel, he says, is “one of the only places around here that’s hiring.” It’s also the last major maker of sleeping bags in the U.S. out of a half-dozen in the business when Kazazian, 46, started the company in 1996, the CEO says. Most had moved overseas by the time he began production in 2000 at the Haleyville factory, which Exxel acquired from sporting-goods maker Brunswick Corp.
.

In 2005, China’s cost advantage began to erode, Kazazian said. As the yuan appreciated, Exxel had to pay more in dollars for materials such as recycled polyester for insulation. In the first half of 2008, wages in urban China jumped 18 per cent from a year earlier, and new minimum-wage and overtime rules will add more to his costs.

Last year, 60 per cent of Exxel’s bags were made in Shanghai, while Haleyville produced the rest. By 2009, only a third will come from China, and by 2010, Haleyville will account for 90 per cent, Kazazian said.

Increasing output in the U.S. made even more sense with the order from Wal-Mart, Exxel’s biggest customer. The company can deliver a bag within three days from its Haleyville plant, while shipping one from China might take as long as two months.

“Labour is China’s advantage and our weakest link,” Kazazian said. “But they can’t compete with me on my just-in-time” production cycle. Customers pay as much as 10-per-cent more to get deliveries as needed rather than incurring expenses to store inventory, he said.

“In the United States—and in other markets—we purchase locally whenever we can,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl.

Exxel expanded its Haleyville workforce by 20 per cent this year to 70 employees and will enlarge it another 20 per cent by 2010. In July, the factory added a third production line to boost output to as many as 2.1 million bags this year from 1.2 million in 2007.

The pickup in work has reassured Winnie Bennett, who was dressed in a purple jumpsuit as she packed scraps of lining into a box. “You’ve got to have faith,” said the 71-year-old. She’s spent 21 years in the factory and wants to work there “for many more,” she said.

<b>"there is a HUGE trade imbalance with China."<b>

Shhhh.... don’t say this to people like “Someone in USA/bbrd” and RDS, ddrb!  These guys don’t seem to have a problem with trade deficits.  They have a hard time admitting that a “deficit” even exits.  Consider the words of former Fed Reserve chairman, Paul Volker:

Last January, Volker said the budget and trade deficits — could “wreck the international financial system” in the next few years.”

Now consider the words of “Someone in USA/bbrd”:

“I have explained in the past that the US trade deficit is a positive thing...It is a GOOD thing. I’m not worried about the trade deficit getting too high.” ~Someone in USA, January 29, 2008

I ask everyone:  Who are you more likely to believe, Paul Volker or Someone in USA/bbrd?

RDS(Bob)
Walmarts reputation is going down the toilet in Canada.
Click below for some examples in a local papers comment file.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081016.wmartunion1016/CommentStory/Business/home

I posted the story at work and people are really turned off of WM. It’s heading to supreme court also. And guess what.
Its not going to stop. We will not let this company run our country.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart worker ABuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Alex-

I see a lot of positive comments in that link, too. I’m glad Wal-Mart made the right decision . . . again.

The right decision is what Someone?
The truth is that Walmart does little for Canadians. They import products made in third world countries exploiting workers who are making pennies an hour.
WM has done much to encourage our jobs off this continent.
The 70,000 service industry jobs pay little, so those WM workers don’t put much back into our economy. Very little spin off purchasing.
If you think Walmart makes good decisions Someone, then I really think that you have a distorted set of values.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart worker ABuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Alex,

Maybe you should read ddrb’s post above, about how jobs are returning from overseas and learn more about how the ‘global economy’ works!!  As those jobs in the foreign countries start to pay more, the people in those countries will finally be able to afford to obtain their ‘middle class’ dreams and will start buying more from other countries, including the U.S. and Canada!!  Ever hear the phrase “A rising tide lifts all boats’?  Well, up until recently, with protectionism, the tide was lifting only the boats here in North America and Europe, while South American, Asian and African countries, for example, were being left behind, which meant that millions of people weren’t being given the chance to attain the standard of living we have enjoyed, now, they are starting to do just that and soon, our exports to those ‘new’ consumers will go up and more jobs here will be created!!

“The truth is that Walmart does little for Canadians.”

Maybe that’s because you don’t give them a chance, by always trying to CHANGE the way they do business!!

Tell me, if you had a business model that was WORKING, how would you like it if I came along and tried to FORCE you to change to a model that WASN’T WORKING for others that did it your way?

“As those jobs in the foreign countries start to pay more, the people in those countries will finally be able to afford to obtain their ‘middle class’ dreams and will start buying more from other countries, including the U.S. and Canada!!"~Bob(RDS)

So can you give us examples of these international companies in foreign countries that are providing wage increases?

Also what are those products that the ‘middle class’ of foreign countries will start buying more from us? Will this happen in 1 year? 5 years? 50 years? Or when hell freezes over?

As those jobs in the foreign countries start to pay more, the people in those countries will finally be able to afford to obtain their ‘middle class’ dreams and will start buying more from other countries, including the U.S. and Canada!!

Tell me, if you had a business model that was WORKING, how would you like it if I came along and tried to FORCE you to change to a model that WASN’T WORKING for others that did it your way?

RDS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NOTE: But that is precisely why WalMArt failed in Germany ,and Japan and other foreign countries where the one size fits all mentality does NOT work. WalMart lost billions of dollars attempting to foist the Bentonvillainy marketing mindset on citizens of other customs and cultures. It was an expensive lesson in loss for the Beast.

“Tell me, if you had a business model that was WORKING, how would you like it if I came along and tried to FORCE you to change to a model that WASN’T WORKING for others that did it your way?"~RDS(Bob)

“I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States . . . do order and declare that all persons held as slaves . . . are, and henceforth shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.” January 1, 1863, in The Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Arthur Brooks Lapsley (New York: Putnam, 1905), vol. 6, pp. 227-228.

The facts are Bob that a system may be working for one party but not for all involved.  Such is the case for people who are exploited at different levels. Your Abraham Lincoln did not accept the status quo though it was working for those who were in a position of power[plantation owners]. So too Walmart will only have this unfair advantage for only so long. My hope is that the Canadian courts will do what is right as Abraham did.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart worker Abuse

People working at Wal-Mart are not slaves. They can quit any time (or unionize and watch their jobs disappear).

Alex,

“So can you give us examples of these international companies in foreign countries that are providing wage increases?”

All you have to do is archive articles posted on this site, about how wages are being raised in China for example!!  Also, it happened with Japan and now they not only buy American products, but they are building plants and creating jobs in the U.S. and Canada, (Honda, Hyundai, Toyota), not to mention BMW, and Kia are examples!!

“Also what are those products that the ‘middle class’ of foreign countries will start buying more from us?”

The same kind of products that you now enjoy and they haven’t been able to afford!!  Check it out, our exports keep increasing every year!!

“Will this happen in 1 year? 5 years? 50 years? Or when hell freezes over?”

That depends upon how much protectionism pressure is put on our governments!!  As long as trade agreements are trying to be ‘side tracked’, it will take longer to get the ‘boats’ raised in other countries!!

From Japan’s Slump in 1990s, Lessons for U.S.
Toshiyuki Aizawa/Reuters

By STEVE LOHR
Published: FEBRUARY 9, 2008
In broad strokes, the parallels are alarming. After a long boom, the Japanese economy in the 1990s, as America’s today, was jolted by a sharp plunge in the real estate market.

Could the American Economy Find Itself in a Lost Decade? In Tokyo, the government bankers and policy makers were slow to recognize the scope of the problem. Bad loans piled up. The financial troubles rippled through the economy as consumer spending and job growth fell.

The Japanese slump proved extraordinarily long-lived, ending only a few years ago, a stretch of stagnation known as Japan’s lost decade. It was a humbling and lasting setback for a nation once feared and admired as a model of economic dynamism.

The shadow of Japan hangs over the American economy these days. The United States is sliding into a housing-driven downturn, economists say, just as it also appears to be losing some of its global edge from the productivity-enhancing gains driven by the technology investments of recent decades. For Japan, experts point out, the housing bubble burst just as the rise of China as an export power hurt Japanese manufacturers.

A lengthy slowdown, they say, could alter the economic psychology of America, echoing the Japanese pattern, as the nation enters a period of diminished confidence that restrains consumer spending and business investment.

“I think there are a lot more similarities than people are willing to admit,” said Clyde V. Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington-based policy research organization that has long promoted American industry.

“The American economy is very fragile now,” said Mr. Prestowitz, who was a trade negotiator with Japan in the Reagan administration.

But the extreme Japanese experience, most analysts agree, stands less as a prediction of America’s fate than as a cautionary example. A Japan-style quagmire, they say, is an outcome that can be avoided in the United States with sound economic policy.

Japan’s central bank and finance ministry, economists say, waited far too long — years — before taking steps to revive Japan’s economy in the 1990s.

The Federal Reserve, while slow to see the credit crisis spilling into the broader economy last year, has acted much more decisively in recent weeks. The Fed has twice cut short-term interest rates sharply, lowering its benchmark rate to 3 percent, reflecting both the central bank’s anxiety and its determination to try to lift the economy despite serious concerns about the risk of higher inflation.

Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, is a former professor at Princeton University and a student of Japan’s policy missteps. And while a number of experts fault Mr. Bernanke for what they see as the Fed’s poor communications with both Main Street and Wall Street, the central bank’s recent moves suggest that he has taken those lessons to heart.

His past comments, however, indicate that Mr. Bernanke thinks that low interest rates alone are not enough to revive an ailing economy. In a 2003 speech in Tokyo, for example, he offered a prescription for Japan’s malaise: a more aggressive monetary policy and “explicit, though temporary, cooperation between the monetary and fiscal authorities” to stimulate the economy.

Washington understands that message. Congress — America’s fiscal authority — moved unexpectedly rapidly to approve a $168 billion stimulus plan that includes household tax rebates, temporary tax cuts and incentives for business investment.

“The United States is moving faster than the Japanese did,” said Charles Yuji Horioka, a professor of economics at Osaka University. “So far, so good. But American policy makers have to be ready to take further steps as needed.”

The American economy, many economists predict, will deteriorate further before things turn around. The government’s report last week that employment fell in January, the first decline in more than four years, was the latest sign of trouble. The depth and duration of the downturn, economists say, will largely depend on how much more bad news is coming from banks and other financial institutions.

Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University, warned that the roughly $100 billion in bad loans reported by banks to date could increase nearly tenfold, as the defaults spread beyond the subprime mortgage loans to consumer loans, credit cards and corporate lending.

In his view, the American economy is already in recession and faces a lengthy downturn of a year or more, before growth recovers.

Still, even Mr. Roubini sees scant chance of the United States following Japan’s path. “I’m very pessimistic, but I don’t think it will be anything like Japan,” he said.

1

Could the American Economy Find Itself in a Lost Decade? In Japan, housing prices in the major metropolitan regions nearly tripled from 1985 to 1991, then proceeded to lose two-thirds of their value over the next 14 years. Today, prices have risen slightly, according to Japanese government statistics. Still, Japanese house prices last year were only slightly higher than the level before the boom, more than two decades ago.

In Japan, government officials not only tolerated the housing price bubble, economists say, they actively encouraged it. Fearful that a strengthening yen was hurting Japanese exporters, the Ministry of Finance urged banks to lend to real estate developers so that a building boom and increased consumer spending would lift the economy.

Japan’s post-bubble recession should have lasted from 1992 to 1994, according to Adam S. Posen, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. But Japanese officials were too conservative and TOO protective of FAILING banks.
“What kept Japan down was repeated macroeconomic policy mistakes,” Mr. Posen observed.

Japan’s close-knit business and government culture, economists say, slowed its response to the crisis and prolonged the slump. The industrial groups, or keiretsu, had tight links with banks, so when a bank got in trouble it was often quietly bailed out temporarily with loans or investments from other members of the corporate group. Japanese bank regulators, economists note, tended to be friendly and permissive.

Eventually, Japan experts say, banking regulation and disclosure rules were TIGHTENED up.

Though not expected to reach the proportions it reached in Japan, the economic pain in America could be considerable, some analysts warn. They see DISTURBING PARALLELS with Japan in that the depths of the financial troubles in United States are still not known, and the shock of the housing market slump may bring a lasting recalibration of the national mood, lowering expectations and confidence.

In Japan, the slump lasted longer than expected not just because of policy mistakes, notes Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard University, but also because of some underlying global economic shifts. Starting in the 1990s, he said, Japan’s EXPORTERS began facing stiffer competition from other nations in Asia, particularly China.

Mr. Rogoff sees a SIMILAR DRAG on the American economy from the slowdown in the rapid growth in productivity that began in the mid-1990s, often attributed to technology-driven gains. Last year, he said, the government revised its estimate of the PRODUCTIVITY growth rate since 2003 DOWN to about 1.6 percent a year, far lower than 2.5 percent average in the years before.

“It certainly appears that the U.S. productivity miracle is over,” Mr. Rogoff said. “Our resilience as an economy is way down. So it looks like the United States will experience a milder version of the Japanese disease.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~NOTE: I posted a portion of this article earlier this year. As you can see, the original date of the article is Feb.,2008. Hindsight is 20/20.The housing slump in Japan,and their loss of productivity to China ,mirrors much of the economoic downturn in this country,eight months later.

People working at Wal-Mart are not slaves. They can quit any time (or unionize and watch their jobs disappear).~
Someone in USA

Someone in USA
I love your arrogance and smugness. It’s behaviour like yours that fuels our resolve.

Bob(RDS)
Thanks for not answering the question. I really didn’t think you were going to anyway. But that’s your right.
Take care.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart worker Abuse

Im disgusted by the closing of the auto sector in Gatineau, and have decided boycott the store.  Is anyone organizing a rally or protest against this?~Scott G in Gatineau, Quebec

Scott G
I am dusgusted also. May I suggest that you distribute this information about Walmart to as wide a demographic as possible. Also talking one on one with other people is important.
Take care.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart worker Abuse

Alex,

“Thanks for not answering the question. I really didn’t think you were going to anyway.”

What question DIDN’T I answer?  Unlike others, I try to answer questions as well as I can!!  If it was the WHEN question, who can answer ‘When’ anything is going to happen?

Example, Here’s one for you: You say that Wal-Mart will be unionized, “It’s not a matter of if, but, a matter of when”, well, tell me WHEN that is going to happen, 1 year? 5 years? 50 years? Or when hell freezes over?

“Example, Here’s one for you: You say that Wal-Mart will be unionized, “It’s not a matter of if, but, a matter of when”, well, tell me WHEN that is going to happen, 1 year? 5 years? 50 years? Or when hell freezes over?"~RDS(Bob)

Answer
All ready happened Bob.
You just are in denial.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart worker Abuse

Alex,

Sorry, but 2 stores (that were closed) and 3 departments (that were eliminated), does not constitute Wal-Mart being unionized!!  What would constitute unionization, would be ALL stores being union or at the least, what Costco has!!  At this moment, just how many employees, out of 1.5 million, does Wal-Mart have (In the U.S. and Canada) that are covered under a union contract?

Facts are Bob that Walmart is NOT union free. Locations in Canada and the USA have been unionized, and still are, and will be in the future. Other locations around the world have unionized Walmarts. Sorry I know you don’t like to see that in print but that is the truth.
Walmart can keep trying to force (now there is one of your favourite words) unionized locations to close but you know the old saying.

You can’t kill an idea who’s time has come.

We are not going to stop RDS(Bob).  Get used to it.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart worker Abuse

Alex,

Face it, unions are a dying breed, whose time has come and gone!!  All one has to do is look at the auto industry, airline industry, etc. to see where they are going!!  Look at the machinist strike at Boeing for example, who is winning there?  Boeing is losing millions of dollars, the employees are losing thousands of dollars, the company is falling behind on their projects, and the company may just end up losing contracts, which could end up in people losing jobs, is that the best way for the employees to gain anything?  And, in the end, they probably won’t end up with any more than they started!!  Heck, it might take years to make up for what they are losing during the strike!!  Yep, unions will be falling by the wayside in the next few years and hopefully, Wal-Mart’s employees will be smart enough to stay out of the union trap!!  What’s the old saying, “Don’t bite the hand that FEEDS you”!!  Ask all those UNEMPLOYED UAW workers, what the union is doing for them!!