Wal-Mart Says: ‘Hasta La Vista’ Union Supporters

So were back to this? And we thought worker intimidation was soooooooo last year.

In 2007, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing Wal-Mart’s unionbusting policies and practices in the United States. According to the report, “while many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus.”

That aggressiveness is back in the news, courtesy of a unionizing push in St. Paul, Minnesota:

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 filed unfair labor practices complaints this week with the National Labor Relations Board. The union contends that during meetings with employees at its Midway store in St. Paul, Wal-Mart managers said people who sign union authorization cards would be fired. The union also charges that store managers interrogated employees regarding their union support and whether they had signed cards in favor of the union.

Of course this shouldn’t be very surprising, though it does seem pretty interesting that management staff came right out and told people that they’d no longer be a Wal-Mart employee if they supported unionization. You’d think they would hew closer to the Godfather-esque, vague threat route - we can’t be held responsible if, say, a supporter “had an accident” type thing. They should know that threatening workers’ employment status is illegal, right? Or do they just not care? One thing we do know is that they’ve certainly had problems with labor issues in Minnesota before.

Anyway, we’re attempting to get a copy of the NLRB complaint. In the meantime, feel free to check out video of the Local 789 worker rally after the jump.

Wal-Mart accused by union of threatening workers
Managers allegedly told them they’d be fired
By Julie Forster
Updated: 06/25/2009 09:49:44 PM CDT

The labor union that is trying to organize Twin Cities-area Wal-Mart workers is accusing the giant retailer of violating labor laws.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 filed unfair labor practices complaints this week with the National Labor Relations Board. The union contends that during meetings with employees at its Midway store in St. Paul, Wal-Mart managers said people who sign union authorization cards would be fired.

The union also charges that store managers interrogated employees regarding their union support and whether they had signed cards in favor of the union. Wal-Mart could not be reached for comment.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is well known for hardball tactics when dealing with union organizing efforts. It has even closed stores where workers voted to join a union. Whether it violated labor laws, though, is open to debate.

“It is fairly common for employers to try to convince employees that they don’t need union representation,” said Marlin Osthus, regional director for the NLRB. “It’s essentially a campaign against the union.”

But it is against the law for employers to threaten workers’ employment status based on union activity, and it’s also illegal for a supervisor or manager to interrogate or intimidate an employee about union support.

Investigations into whether an employer’s actions are unlawful center on whether employers went too far, straying from educating and expressing their views on unions to intimidating and threatening workers.

The answer can be subjective, depending on one’s personal view of unions.

“Managers are going to react to a union organizing campaign,” said John Budd, a professor of industrial relations at the Carlson School of Management and the University of Minnesota. “How we interpret that reaction is very controversial.”

Workers in eight metro-area stores have signed cards and are actively working in their stores to organize a union, said Doug Mork, director of organizing for Local 789, a union that represents workers in retail, nursing homes and food processing.

Wal-Mart is holding meetings with employees at other metro stores in addition to the St. Paul store, but no charges have been filed in those cases. Mork said he suspects other charges will be coming.

The union’s local campaign started a few months ago and a national organizing effort started about six months ago, with activities in about 15 cities. If 30 percent of the workers in a location sign cards supporting union representation, the union can petition the NLRB for an election. Typically, though, unions want to see at least 70 percent of the workers sign cards to ensure success in an election.

The NLRB has assigned an investigator to look into the current charges.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Friday, June 26, 2009

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