Arbitrator Imposes Collective Agreement on Behalf of Quebec Wal-Mart Workers
Breaking news from the CBC: a Canadian arbitrator will impose on Wal-Mart a collective agreement signed by employees in Gatineau, Quebec. The agreement involves wage raises and more vacation time for the eight employees at the store’s tire and lube shop. It’s the first time such an agreement has been implemented at a Wal-Mart in North America. A spokesperson for the company expressed unhappiness with the deal, stating that collective bargaining with employees is “incompatible” with the company’s business model. Details sure to follow.
UPDATE: More from Reuters
Landmark Wal-Mart ruling released by Quebec arbitrator [CBC News]
A Quebec arbitrator has imposed a collective agreement on Wal-Mart for the first time in the world’s largest retailer’s history.
The arbitrator released the decision Friday on the contract for eight workers at a tire-and-lube garage at a Wal-Mart store on Maloney Boulevard in Gatineau, just across the river from Ottawa. The workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada.
Guy Chenier, head of the local representing the workers, said the union is delighted with the deal, which gives the workers raises averaging 35 to 40 per cent effective immediately, as well as more vacation.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart said the company is unhappy with the decision and it is “incompatible” with the company’s way of doing business. Wal-Mart is the biggest company in the world, according to the Fortune 500 rankings, and recorded nearly $13 billion US in profits in 2007 — yet its front-line employees make less than $20,000 US a year, on average, and the company has been cited for union-busting tactics by government agencies and independent watchdogs.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, August 15 | 45 comments | Permalink
WAL-MART/BHARTI DEAL WILL LAUNCH IN NORTHERN INDIA NEXT YEAR
Bharti Wal-Mart JV to take off from Punjab [Financial Express (India)]
The joint venture Bharti Wal-Mart Private Limited is set to open 10-15 wholesale cash-and-carry facilities which will employ approximately 5,000 people over the next seven years. The first facility is expected to take off from Punjab by the first quarter of 2009. The JV has already set up a distribution centre spread over 1,00,000 sq ft in Banur from where goods will be supplied to the nearest facility.
Being tight-lipped over the selection of the place for first cash and carry facility Raj Jain, managing director and CEO, Bharti Wal-mart Private Limited just said the company would commence its operations from the north only.
Talking about the Wal-Mart economics in India, Raj Jain said, “Our aim is to provide best quality products at cheaper prices in India. Wholesale cash and carry operation will provide a wide range of products to small retailers and business owners. The JV will serve Kirana stores, fruit and vegetable resellers, restaurants. The venture will invest in setting up an efficient chain and will support farmers, small manufacturers who have limited infrastructure and distribution strength. We will also help our suppliers to get easy access to finance from banks. The supplier will get the certificate from Wal-Mart, which will help them to avail the loan. But we will not stand as a guarantee if a particular supplier fails to repay the loan”.
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Posted by Stephanie Lee on Tuesday, August 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart and China’s Retail Unions
In the third post in this week’s series on Wal-Mart and China, we turn our attention to Wal-Mart recently-unionzed stores in China. While working conditions in many of China’s industrial factories remain abysmal, workers at Wal-Mart’s stores across China are bargaining collectively and China holds the title of being the only country with a unionized Wal-Mart store. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart employees in North America continue to face anti-union intimidation from supervisors, or, as in the case of several employees in Canada, actual union-busting by the company.
Wal-Mart’s decision to allow unions at its stores in China is less a sign of compassion for its employees and more an indicator of Wal-Mart’s intense desire to expand in China. As the company reaches saturation in the United States - and meets increasingly difficult opposition as it tries to expand - Wal-Mart has come to rely on its international stores for a larger and larger percent of its profits. To build with more efficiency internationally, the retailer has made a number of exceptions to its normally unchanging business model. Some of those changes have been smaller store formats, some have been unions at its stores.
Ideally, Wal-Mart would allow unions at its stores in countries without dictatorial, totalitarian governments. The fact that Wal-Mart’s stores in China - where the government has enormous say in business dealings - are the only ones to unionize is a sad characterization of the company’s labor policies. Its actions imply Wal-Mart will only allow unions when forced to. Without the aid of strong government-backed support for workers (where could we find something like that...) how will Wal-Mart’s employees ever manage to stand up for their rights?
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, August 07 | 18 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart: Save Money, Bust Unions
Today’s story in the Montreal Gazette reported Wal-Mart is likely to close a Tire and Lube Shop in Canada which is on the verge of unionizing. Wal-Mart has pulled this same move twice before: once with the meat-cutters department at a Texas store and in another instance, at a store in Jonquière, Quebec. As is evidenced by these three cases, Wal-Mart would rather close an entire store than see it unionized.
Friday’s story in the Wall Street Journal further exposes Wal-Mart’s fear of unions in North America. The company’s attempt to intimidate employees with threats of lost jobs and less power show how critical low wages are to Wal-Mart’s business model, and how far the company will go to prevent unions at its stores.
Yet despite the company’s vehement opposition to unions in North America, Wal-Mart is currently signing collective bargaining agreements with employees at its retail stores in China. This additional chapter to Wal-Mart’s long, contentious history with labor activists and union members adds a new facet to the Wal-Mart unionization debate. Read more about these instances and more in our new fact sheet:
Click here to download “Wal-Mart: Save Money, Bust Unions” (PDF)
Posted by Research Team on Wednesday, August 06 | 9 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Likely to Close Tire and Lube Shop on the Verge of Unionizing in Canada
Fresh on the heels of anti-union propagandizing at the company comes news from Canada that Wal-Mart is on the verge of closing a Tire and Lube shop which is about to unionize. This isn’t the first time that Wal-Mart has closed a store rather than see it unionize: the company outsourced meatpacking when its butchers unionized, and shuttered a store in Jonquiere, Quebec after the employees there voted for a union. Despite the fact that experts expect all 206 of Wal-Mart’s stores in China to sign collective bargaining agreements in the next month, it seems the retailer is still dead set against allowing unions to form in its North America stores.
Read more on the Battle-Mart blog >>>
Decision looms for Wal-Mart [Montreal Gazette]
Union leaders say they expect Wal-Mart Canada Corp. to shut down a garage it operates in Gatineau after workers are presented with their first collective agreement.
Guy Chénier, president of the union local representing garage workers, said Wal-Mart has already hinted it will close the shop. In 2005, Wal-Mart came under fire for closing a store in Jonquière after workers won union accreditation.
In Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa, Wal-Mart garage workers have been unionized since 2005, and are now waiting for their first collective agreement following binding arbitration that ended in June.
It’s not clear when the contract will be imposed, but the union says it expects it to be soon.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, August 06 | 1 comments | Permalink
Gatineau, Que. Wal-Mart Expected To Close TLE Shop Over Union Agreement
Wal-Mart likes to say its “pro-associate, not anti-union.” But whenever its associates vote to become union members, Wal-Mart cuts them off at the knees.
In March of 2005, a union filed applications to certify workers at a Wal-mart Canada store in Gatineau, Quebec. The United Food and Commercial Workers Canada filed two certification applications with the Quebec Labor Relations Commission to represent workers in the main section of the Wal-Mart store in Gatineau, as well as for store’s Tire and Lube Express shop, or “garage” as it is called in Quebec.
In 2005, when the UFCW was certified as a union in another Wal-Mart store in Jonquiere, Quebec, Wal-Mart Canada shut the entire store down. Wal-Mart said the store was not making money. “We salute the courage and the determination of these workers who, despite Wal-Mart’s intimidation tactics, are asserting their right to unionize,” said Guy Chenier, president of UFCW Canada Local 486. Another contentious campaign was carried out in Windsor, Ontario, where Wal-Mart workers voted against forming a union. The UFCW and Wal-Mart management filed unfair labor practice charges in the Windsor case, each accusing the other side of intimidation.
The Montreal Gazette reports this week that UFCW leaders predict that Wal-Mart will shut down its Tire and Lube Express when the workers there are given their first collective agreement. The arbitrator’s decision will affect not only the 10 garage workers at Gatineau, but the Wal-Mart workers in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, who are also waiting for their first collective agreement, and workers all across Canada. Chénier told the Gazette that Wal-Mart has already hinted it will close the garage. TLE workers in Gatineau, which lies across the river from Ottawa, have been unionized for three years, and are now waiting for their first collective agreement following binding arbitration that ended in June. This would be the first collective bargaining agreement. “I have the impression that they will want to close the garage,” said Chénier. “But if they do this, we will help the workers find other places right away.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Wednesday, August 06 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart and China’s Pollution Problems
As Beijing prepares for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic summer games later this week, more and more attention is being drawn to China’s pollution problems. The country is notorious for smog-filled air and chemically tainted waterways. While cleaning crews struggle to clear up algae-strangled rivers, many athletes are planning to compete with face masks because the air quality is so poor.
China recently became the world’s largest CO2 producer, producing one quarter of the world’s carbon emissions. A post on Treehugger today points out that 33% of those emissions are from export manufacturing.
Wal-Mart is an integral part of this problem. As we mentioned in yesterday’s post on China’s human rights violations, Wal-Mart isn’t the cause of China’s pollution problems, but it certainly has a vested interested in keeping China’s environmental standards low. Were China to improve environmental regulation, manufacturers looking to source as cheaply as Wal-Mart demands would inevitably be forced to other countries and China would loose billions.
The Olympics are only highlighting a problem that has been going on for decades: companies like Wal-Mart force countries like China to sacrifice environmental integrity for production profits. It’s a critical aspect of corporate social responsibility that Wal-Mart glibly passes-over in its sustainability reports, but China’s carbon production is everyone’s affair. As the Olympics have revealed, China’s people are suffering from these practices and shouldn’t be made to bear the world’s burden.
It’s Not You, It’s Me: 33% of China’s CO2 Emissions From Export Manufacturing [TreeHugger]
33% of China’s carbon footprint blamed on exports [New Scientist]
Global CO2 emissions: increase continued in 2007 [Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency]
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, August 05 | 1 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart and China’s Human Rights Abuses
Amnesty International has taken the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an opportunity to highlight China’s legacy of human rights violations, and to call on the country to change its practices. The Olympics may stand for all that is strong and vibrant in the human spirit, but the Chinese government’s policies of forced labor, censorship, arbitrary police detentions, and unjust executions fall miserably short of these lofty goals.
Wal-Mart sources more than 70% of its products from China, and relies on this atmosphere of abuse and oppression to keep production costs low. The issues Amnesty International raises are precisely why Chinese factories can manufacture products for so little: most workers are too afraid to stand up for better working conditions, and understandably so. Without these intimidating working conditions, Wal-Mart would have a much tougher time keeping its prices so low.
Wal-Mart might be in a joint venture with China, but Wal-Mart’s heart lies with exploitative working conditions, not the Chinese people. Surely once China’s labor standards improve far enough, the retailer will move on to a country where working conditions remain medieval and workers’ rights are nonexistent.
China’s Olympic Legacy [Amnesty International]
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, August 04 | 8 comments | Permalink
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