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Big news out of Canada.  Wal-Mart has filed an injunction to try to censor the online initiatives of the UFCW in their efforts to reach out to Wal-Mart workers and provide an online forum for them to share their stories. The move filed by Wal-Mart seeks to remove similar Wal-Mart logos and expressions.

Their reasoning? Wal-Mal is worried that the website is “deprecating the value of the goodwill” of their brand. Rest assured Wal-Mart, you did that a long time ago.

Keep reading for Al Norman’s must-read expert analysis.

This breaking news story should be placed in the circular file. Watch what you say around Wal-Mart Canada.

Over the years, the giant retailer, in exercising its own brand of censorship, has forced recording artists to change lyrics and ‘sanitize’ album covers, removed certain magazines from its racks, and generally cultivated its own corporate sense of what the public should or shouldn’t see. Now the retailer has developed a list of words and images that it doesn’t want its workers to read on a union website. On June 19, 2009, the Wal-Mart Canada Corporation filed an injunction in Montreal to force the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada from using words like “Wal-Mart” alone or with other words “in a color scheme of blue, white and gold” which is similar to that adopted by Wal-Mart Canada.

The injunction seeks to bar the UFCW from using such words or symbols on its website, business cards, flyers or advertising. The company has included in its injunction “an oval, circular or semi-circular design that adopts the essential characteristics and color scheme of Wal-Mart’s Rebranded Indicia.” Wal-Mart Canada also wants the union to “immediately take down the website” http://www.walmartworkerscanada.ca, and to stop using the expression “Get Respect. Live Better,” which the retailer says infringes on its trademarked phrase, “Save Money. Live Better.”

The union would be banned from using Wal-Mart’s new “spark design” that includes “spokes or figures” like the company’s logo. Also on the banned list would be the words “Wal-Mart Workers Canada,” and the use of any images or photos of people wearing “the blue vest and name tag badge similar to those worn on the job by Wal-Mart employees in Canada.” Wal-Mart charges that the UFCW’s website and its images constitute a violation of Canada’s Trade Marks Act, and that the UFCW actions are “deprecating the value of the goodwill” of the company’s trademarks.

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It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following comments include a retail industry veteran telling it like it is, the experiences of a disabled employee, the departure from Sam Walton era values, and a dream job gone wrong.

A former employee from New York writes to us anonymously to say that Wal-Mart is one of the worst jobs out there:

“I’m 62 years old with 18 years of produce experience and over 30 years experience in retail. I wanted a part-time job to help pay for the extras my wife and I love. I took a job at hell-mart. In all my years of working in retail, I have never witnessed a company as heartless as Wal-Mart.

The pay is a joke; I was told my starting pay is based on my experience (LOL). I make $8.30 an hour. I was told I would be part-time...24 hours a week. They have no one in the produce department who knows what they are doing so they work me two weeks at 40 hours and then one week of 32 hours. This way they don’t have to make me full time and won’t have to pay for benefits.

When I complain about the number of hours I’m working, they tell me how lucky I am to be working at Wal-Mart. The hours are a joke. Every week is different. You never get the same hours from week to week. It’s impossible to plan anything.

God help you if you get sick. You better come in and work no mater how you feel. If you take a sick day five times in any six-month period, they coach you. This is when they take you behind closed doors and read you the riot act. If you are sick one more day after that, you are fired - for any reason they want. I have seen some very sick people come into work - so sick, they could hardly stand up. Wal-Mart doesn’t care. If they ask to go home, they are told it will count against them if they do. I was told even if your doctor puts you off from work you still have a count against you. There is absolutely no excuse for being sick.

There is a God and I just pray one day that the Walton family pays for the way they treat the people who make them rich. I have only been there for 7 months and I could tell you things you wouldn’t believe, it is unreal the way they treat the employees.”

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An odd story in the Wall Street Journal today. Apparently Wal-Mart workers in St. Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec just received a union contract imposed by an arbitrator - making them the only Wal-Mart in North American to have such a contract. Great news, right?

Unfortunately, the entire story was written in a Wal-Mart perspective, so it’s hard to get a real handle on what actually happened. There are no quotes from workers or union representatives, and no mention of any of the non-wage components of the contract.

We can be glad that there is actually a signed contract at a North American Wal-Mart. But if it’s true that that the contract keeps wages at the “status quo,” there’s a lot to be disappointed in.

Even in Canada, where labor laws are more favorable to workers than they are in the U.S., Wal-Mart retains an outrageously unfair amount of power over the situation. It’s evidence enough that even after Wal-Mart workers form a union and get a signed contract, Wal-Mart gets a one-sided story in the Wall Street Journal where it:

a) gloats that it won’t have to give any raises
b) leaves open the possible threat of store closure, and
c) says publicly that the company “doubts employees in Saint-Hyacinthe will feel better off given they’ve lost the company’s ‘open-door process’ and have to pay dues.”

Publicly chastising its hard-working associates for trying to improve their own lives? How would Sam Walton feel about that? 

We know how it makes us feel: that we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Now.

UPDATE: The National Post has a lot more to say about the story here. Apparently UFCW is claiming victory as well—which is encouraging news.

Wal-Mart Says Contract Keeps Status Quo At Quebec Store [Wall Street Journal]:

An arbitrator has imposed a contract on a Wal-Mart Canada Corp. store in Quebec that the company says preserves the status quo for wages and benefits.

The store in Saint-Hyacinthe, about an hour east of Montreal, was certified by the United Food and Commercial Workers union in January 2005 without a vote. Binding arbitration began in late 2006.

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A long-fought labor (or labour) case involving the closing of a Wal-Mart in Quebec when it tried to unionize is now in front of Canada’s Supreme Court, and this week judges began hearing arguments from both sides as to why Wal-Mart was wrong (or not) to close the store back in 2005. A pleasant mix of French and English has turned the courtroom into something akin to a UN summit, as many had to wear headphones that would translate what was being said into their native tongue.

The closing of the Wal-Mart in Jonquiere, Quebec, happened 7 months after employees there voted to become North America’s first unionized Wal-Mart store. Each side is, understandably, taking a firm stand on its position - Wal-Mart believes it has the right to close any store it wants, anytime it wants to; labor attorneys are arguing that intimidation of employees who seek to form a union is illegal, so necessarily the threatening and subsequent closing of an entire store wishing to unionize clearly fits under that description.

If you had mainly black employees and a store is going to close for discriminatory reasons, that would not and should not be allowed,” union attorney Bernard Philion told the nine justices - five men and four women - according to the simultaneous translation provided on headsets in the courtroom. He added that since Canadian labor law clearly protects individual employees from reprisal for union activities, it certainly should protect whole stores-full of employees.

The case appears that it will hinge on who has the burden of proof - that is, which side has to go out and proactively prove its argument. Will Wal-Mart have to show that it had various other good and legitimate reasons for closing the store? Or will labor have the burden of proving that Wal-Mart discriminated against its employees by shutting a store down that tried to unionize? The Court will have the final say on that, though Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin did point out that it will be up to Canada’s labor courts, and not the Supreme Court, to decide penalties against Wal-Mart should the retail giant lose.

Quebec labor law would not force Wal-Mart to reopen the store and give union employees their jobs back. Rather, the Supreme Court could remand the case to Quebec’s labor court, which could order Wal-Mart to pay penalties and damages to the employees for their lost wages.

Those looking for more info. on the case can check here - the case is Gaetan Plourde c. Compagnie Wal-Mart du Canada Inc., 32342, Supreme Court of Canada (Ottawa).
We know those involved in this similar closing will be.

Sides argue in Wal-Mart Canada case [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]

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Canada’s high court, looking festive after the holiday season, is back to its full compliment of 9 judges. The court has been a judge down for six months now, ever since the retirement of Judge Michel Bastarache. Thomas Cromwell, a Nova Scotia judge, will fill out the Court, which will return to session this month.

Among the cases on their docket? Weighing Wal-Mart’s claim that it did not close a Jonquière, Que., store in order to crush a fledgling union, an issue that came up again late last year.

Wal-Mart employees laid off in Jonquière in 2005 are to have their case against the U.S. retailer heard Jan. 19. The workers claim the giant retailer killed their jobs after they exercised their Charter right to organize themselves into a collective bargaining unit in 2004. Shortly after the workers certified a union to represent them – the first successful union drive at a Wal-Mart outlet in North America – the company closed the store, citing financial reasons, putting 190 employees on the street.

A loss for Wal-Mart certainly won’t look good for the company as it fights to slow progress of the Employee Free Choice Act south of the Canada border...meaning, here. As we noted a couple days ago, Wal-Mart already appears to be doing anything it can to resolve issues that might come back to haunt the company in the EFCA fight - such as settling its vast array of wage and hour cases.

Supreme Court set to tackle Wal-Mart case [Toronto Star]

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No longer will your tootsies be kept tender by Wal-Mart’s “all man-made” Tender Tootsie slippers. The main problem, apparently, is that while Wal-Mart advertises that its slippers use 100% man-made materials, it turns out that in reality those slippers are lined with real rabbit fur.

So, either Wal-Mart is claiming to be the inventor and subsequent mass-producer of the bunny, or Wal-Mart’s packaging is inaccurate. I say it’s a coin-flip, but either way the mass retailer and uber rabbit farmer has pulled all of its Tender Tootsie slippers from store shelves in Canada after the Animal Defence League of Canada discovered the products were incorrectly labelled and contained real fur.

Marley Daviduk, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver branch of the national organization, found the slippers while shopping last week and the Ottawa and Vancouver branches of the Animal Defence League immediately contacted both Wal-Mart Canada and the product’s London, Ont.-based importer. “I knew right away it was real rabbit fur, but it said on the tag that there were no man-made materials,” she said.

The slippers, manufactured in China, apparently slipped past Wal-Mart’s quality control despite the fact that the company states it has a strict no-fur policy. Maybe next we should start checking the fur coats, to see if, ohhh, perhaps a real mink got slipped in there every so often?

Wal-Mart pulls slippers after animal-rights group complains [CanWest News Service]

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Another one bites the dust: 150 associates in Hull, Quebec are the most recent Wal-Mart workers to unionize.

Congrats to UFCW and Wal-Mart’s Canadian Workforce. The pace at which stores are being unionized now entirely changes the ballgame. Over the past few years, Wal-Mart has been able to shut down a few unionized stores here and there with little consqequence other than bad press. But with stores becoming more rapidly unionized, this won’t be so easy. At a minimum, if Wal-Mart does choose to shutter every unionized store, it’s going to take a major bite of it’s Canadian business and growth plan for the future.

Another Wal-Mart unionized in Quebec [UFCW Press Release]:

HULL, QUE., NEWS RELEASE--(Marketwire - Dec. 18, 2008) -

Over 150 Wal-Mart workers in Hull, Que., have become the ninth group of Canadian “associates” to join the country’s largest private-sector union after a Dec. 17 decision by the Quebec Labour Board awarded bargaining rights for the Hull location to the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW Canada).

“After nine times, the message coming from Wal-Mart workers in Canada to Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Arkansas, couldn’t be louder or clearer: Canadian Wal-Mart workers want to be union members,” says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.

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...is news we won’t be surprised to hear.  Workers at the Weyburn store were granted union status on December 8, but given Wal-Mart’s history, it’s hard to tell how long the store will remain open.

As we know, in 2000 when Wal-Mart meat department employees unionized in Jacksonville, Texas, Wal-Mart abruptly scrapped their entire network of in store butchers. [Occupational Health & Safety, 3/16/08]

In August 2004, workers in Jonquière, Quebec store gained union certification and attempted to bargain with Wal-Mart but were unable to reach a settlement. On February 1, 2005, the same day that the Minster of Labor granted the union’s request for contract arbitration, Wal-Mart announced that it would close the Jonquière store. [Human Rights Watch “Discounting Rights, May 2007]

To see the process of unionization for the Weyburn store, click here.

For the latest story, see Bloomberg:

Workers at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlet in Canada will be represented by a union after more than four years of legal challenges by the retailer, the United Food and Commercial Workers said.

The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board granted union status yesterday to workers at a store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, the group said in a statement today. The application was submitted in April 2004.

Employees at three of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer’s locations in Quebec are already represented by the union. Applications for unionization of two others in Saskatchewan are before the labor board.

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Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.

This week’s issue begins with a new study from the group Good Jobs First, which reveals that cash-strapped states are forgoing a total of roughly $1 billion annually in tax revenue because of little-noticed laws that permit retailers to keep a slice of the sales taxes they collect for the government. In fact, the study finds thirteen states do not cap the amount that a retailer can receive as vendor compensation for collecting sales tax, resulting in millions of lost tax dollars.

A large focus this week is also on Wal-Mart’s announcement that Lee Scott will step down as CEO in February 2009, to be replaced by Michael Duke, Wal-Mart’s Vice Chairman of its International Division. In addition to the CEO change, you’ll find stories on the battle over the Employee Free Choice Act, how Wal-Mart will deal with the Obama Administration from a labor perspective, and related news on Wal-Mart’s labor battles in Canada.

And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe. Wal-Mart has founded a new consumer group in New England geared towards fighting Wal-Mart opponents, and has purchased its own wind-energy supply based out of Odessa, Texas

Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [November 21, 2008]

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The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB) has agreed to hear a complaint by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) accusing Wal-Mart of engaging in unfair labor practices as defined by Saskatchewan law. What’s more, the SLRB has ruled that Wal-Mart’s actions outside the province of Saskatchewan can be taken into account in assessing whether it is engaging in unfair labor actions within the province.

This means that the SLRB can take into account the example of Jonquiere, Quebec, when ruling on UFCW Canada’s complaint. It was in that small town, just over 100 miles north of Quebec City, that Wal-Mart announced it was going to shut its doors after workers voted to make the Jonquiere store the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America. The closure put 190 employees out of work, served as a warning for workers at other Wal-Mart stores who may have considered unionization against the company’s wishes.

Board chair James Seibel said the board was not required to determine whether Wal-Mart had acted illegally in Quebec to consider whether its actions “intimidated employees in Saskatchewan” from exercising their right under the province’s Trade Union Act to “organize and be represented by a bargaining agent of their choosing.”

“The fact that the actions of Wal-Mart upon which the allegations are based were committed outside the geographic confines of Saskatchewan does not mean that they cannot constitute (a) violation of the restriction on intimidation of its employees in the province,” Seibel ruled.

As the UFCW Canada complaint moves forward in Saskatchewan, it will be interesting to see if Wal-Mart’s actions in Quebec play a significant role - the company’s labor issues have yet to fade away there. According to the National Union of Public and General Employees:

The ruling is the latest in a series of setbacks for Wal-Mart in Canada. The company recently shut down a second operation in Quebec – a tire and lube shop in Gatineau – after failing to stop a union contract from being imposed there. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court of Canada case arising from the Jonquiere closure is scheduled to be heard within months.

We’ll keep you posted.

Wal-Mart actions in Quebec intimidate employees elsewhere [National Union of Public and General Employees]

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Time to pull that roll of aluminum foil out of the pantry, because they’re after us, and they want our braaainnns…

Or so says Jerry Rose, one of our neighbors to the north in British Columbia, who has filed one of the more bizarre lawsuits I have seen in some time. Rose is after $2 billion in damages from Microsoft, Telus, Wal-Mart, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (among others) for the usual list of charges: mind control, satanism, and witchcraft. We’ll look around and see if we can get a copy of his complaint, but according to the National Post:

Mr. Rose’s claim states “that he has been subject to invasive brain computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery” and also named the University of B.C. and the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons as defendants.

Not to be outdone, an attorney for Microsoft assured the judge that there is in fact no scientific evidence that mind control is possible, although anyone that has been forced to watch a Sarah Palin rally may beg to differ. We’re not sure what role Wal-Mart has played in all of this, but if I had to guess, witchcraft would be my bet.

Judge Fraser Wilson, while calling the case unusual, has said he will need to be convinced there is nothing in Rose’s claim that could not be litigated before he dismisses it.

B.C. judge hears $2B lawsuit against Microsoft, Wal-Mart over brain control [CanWest News Service]

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BloggingStock’s Brian White doesn’t always share our viewpoint on Wal-Mart, but this week’s “Wal-Mart Weekly” column is particularly interesting. It focuses entirely on the closing of the Tire & Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec.

It’s a good column, and not just because it gets in a few zings at Wal-Mart. It’s one of the first pieces we’ve seen that begins to take a real look at Wal-Mart’s repeated decisions to close stores rather than deal with unions and union contracts, and asks important questions from a business perspective. Is this a good policy for Wal-Mart as a company? Is the repeated antagonism of workers who unionize going to hurt Wal-Mart’s growth potential in countries like Canada and China - where unions are more powerful and prevalent? And more fundamentally - is Wal-Mart’s bare-bones-wage model really a sustainable and profitable business plan in an economy where living costs are skyrocketing?

If you’ve got time, read the whole thing: 

The Wal-Mart Weekly: Is closing up a unionized shop the best strategy? [BloggingStocks]

This week, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) closed the first shop in North America that had been completely unionized. Does this signal anything to other Wal-Mart locations that form a collective bargaining organization? Sure: form one and the retailer would rather see the operation shut down entirely instead of having employees with any kind of power.

That may sound harsh, but it has to be the feeling around a Wal-Mart tire and lube shop in Gatineau, Quebec, which was literally closed due to its unionization last week. What better a way to leave consumers in the lurch than to close up shop on something that brings in revenue even if its employees decide to stray from Wal-Mart’s “non-union” stance in its retail locations.
Was the closing really the best answer?

With the Gatineau location in Canada the first official Wal-Mart location with an actual union contract in place, Wal-Mart’s response could be seen as severe. Was the global retailer trying to get a message out to any other Wal-Mart location in North America—“unionize and we will shut your doors?” If so, that’s no way to run a business, right? Is Wal-Mart so afraid of unions in its stores that it would rather shut them down (or pieces of them) instead of continuing to operate?

Lisette Wallingford, a frustrated customer of the Gatineau shop, expressed her disappointment: “They told me to come back today because my tires were coming in ... I think I’ll go to Canadian Tire because I can count on them.” There’s all we need to know: a frustrated customer. Wal-Mart was at least kind enough to direct customers late last week to other Gatineau-area Wal-Mart locations, with no mentioning that the closed location was due to unionization. Nice.

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Wal-Mart doesn’t have a bank yet in the U.S., but that isn’t stopping ‘em from forging full-steam ahead in Canada and Mexico.

In classic shrewd fashion, Wal-Mart seems to be using the financial crisis and the credit crunch to its advantage. Today’s story in PR Week isn’t the first to imply that Wal-Mart’s application for a bank in Canada might be “received favourably” by officials in a weak economy.

The story also noted for the umpteenth time that:

Wal-Mart Canada did not return calls for comment. In its notice, the retailer did not disclose what kind of banking services it would provide, but it is expected to offer credit card, mortgage, and investment products.

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg News story today tells us that Wal-Mex’s bank is growing. Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB is charging ahead south of the border and planning to unload 100,000 credit cards on Mexicans, targeting primarily the 75 percent of the population who’ve never had a bank account.

Issuing more credit cards as Mexico’s economy slows would allow Walmex, as the company is known, to collect annual interest of as high as 75 percent and encourage purchases of more expensive appliances and furniture at its stores, the only place the cards can be used. Walmex is preparing more financial products aimed at customers who have never had a bank account, about 75 percent of Mexico’s 103 million people.

In case you missed that: Wal-Mart is encouraging Mexicans to go in debt at 75 percent interest.

Presumably, Wal-Mart is trying to set up working bank operations in Canada and Mexico before trying again to apply in the U.S. And now they seem to be using the financial crisis as another tool to get into the banking game.

They certainly can’t expect us to keep quiet about any it.

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Well, my faithful blog readers, after two years of working on Wal-Mart issues and more than a year as the main editor of this blog, our Friday Blog Round-Up today will be my last post. I hope you all continue reading, commenting and working to challenge Wal-Mart’s business practices. Enjoy the writing of my Wal-Mart Watch colleagues and try to keep the infighting to a minimum. As for now - on to the week’s blogs!

BLOGGERS WEIGH IN ON “EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT”

Real Voices, Some More Wild Stuff [Working Life]

Wal-Mart Watch has set up a website where you can actually hear and read about the actual workers who have to put up with the oppressive behavior of The Beast. This is part of the picture: the Great Robbery that we have all endured for a number of decades--wages not going up (even though productivity goes up), no health care, no pensions--plays out, day-to-day, in those aisles at Wal-Mart.

The voice of the workers (Part 1) [Writing on the Wal]

What you get there is a look behind Walmart’s PR curtain to see what employees are really thinking, but too afraid to tell their supervisors since they don’t have a union to protect them. Indeed, let’s start this series there, in the category that Wal-Mart Watch calls corporate culture.

After the jump, union-busting in Canada, bottle water, Nike’s suit against the Bentonville behemoth and Sarah Palin.

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Wal-Mart Canada shuts another location after workers unionize [Marketwire]

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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No matter how many times Wal-Mart fails to create a “Bank of Wal-Mart,” the company always seems to find a way to bring it back to life.

Seven months ago, we helped keep Wal-Mart out of the banking business. But now, the Federal Reserve is looking into changing the rules completely - and may throw open the door to giant corporations like Wal-Mart to run their own banks.

At a time when our economy is already in crisis, we can’t turn the banking industry over to Wal-Mart. Please write a note to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Banking Committee leaders in Congress, and let them know what’s at stake:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/NoBankofWalmart

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After getting shut down in U.S., Wal-Mart looks to lock up the other 2/3 of the continent by getting a bank permit in Canada.

Saturday, Wal-Mart posted its mandatory public notice of its official bank application to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. The bank would theoretically be based in Mississauga, Ontario, but there’s no real timeline yet or any indication if the same opposition that rose quickly in the U.S. to block Wal-Mart’s bank will arise in Canada.

So what does it all really mean?

Several analysts have said so far that Wal-Mart’s entry in banking wouldn’t pose a huge threat to the Canadian banking establishment - in the near future, at least. Wal-Mart Stores already offer financial services like money transfers and cash withdrawals, but a banking license would allow the company to greatly expand what it offers. Spokesman Kevin Groh cited credit cards as an immediate first step for Wal-Mart, but also listed as possibilities “savings accounts, loans, mortgages, RSPs, GICs...”

The consensus, at least as of now, appears to be that Wal-Mart’s focus is still retail-based: rather than targeting the Canadian banking sector, it’s targeting other retailers by using the new offerings to pull in more customers and squeeze more dollars out existing store customers. (Wal-Mart Canada Andrew Pelletier said that the company doesn’t plan to open up traditional bank branches “for the foreseeable future”...)

As Wal-Mart tries to furiously expand and eat more market share in Canada, this is an edge it seems desperate for.

The Holy Grail for Wal-Mart, of course, is a bank in U.S. They’ll no doubt try again, but for now Wal-Mart will have to settle on our neighbors to the South and (they hope) North.

Wal-Mart Canadian Unit Seeks to Offer Bank Services [Bloomberg News]:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, applied to the Canadian government for official bank status that would allow it to expand financial services in the country.

Wal-Mart’s Canadian unit has applied to the minister of finance to establish a bank under the name Wal-Mart Canada Bank and, in French, La Banque Wal-Mart du Canada, according to a notice posted Sept. 13 on the Canadian government’s Web site.

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Wal-Mart Canada has faced some big labor problems lately. A 2005 lawsuit against the company’s anti-union labor practices made it to the Canadian Supreme Court this month, and at almost the same time workers in a Wal-Mart garage in Gatineau, Quebec managed to unionze, much to the company’s chagrin. So the company’s PR department did what it does best: divert attention.

David Cheesewright, CEO of Wal-Mart Canada, announced today that all of the company’s new Canadian stores will be “energy efficient.” The retailer has yet to meet any independent guidelines for energy efficiency, so its environmental claims are somewhat unclear, but the announcement comes at a time when Wal-Mart Canada could use some serious public relations karma.

Cheesewright insisted that the efficiency improvements were simply cost-saving measures, and said “environmental sustainability and business sustainability—it’s the same thing.” However, the company has yet to announce any such measures for its U.S. stores - or its stores in any other country, for that matter. The number of “energy efficient” Wal-Mart stores remains a pitifully small percentage of the company’s total operations. So if Cheesewright’s statements are true, Wal-Mart is missing out on a lot of cost savings - and we all know Wal-Mart wouldn’t do a thing like that. Perhaps the retailer is actually just looking for some free PR among our neighbors to the north.

Wal-Mart aims for ‘greenest stores on the block’ [Financial Post (Canada)]

Wal-Mart Canada Corp. pushed its green agenda ahead Tuesday by pledging that all new stores will be built to be markedly more energy efficient, and existing stores will be retrofitted to make them more environmentally friendly.

“Wal-Mart Canada (WMT/NYSE) has been intensely dedicated to environmental sustainability over the past three years,” Wal-Mart Canada CEO David Cheesewright said at the annual meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario on Tuesday. “Perhaps no change has been as significant as those made to the way we build and operate our buildings. And the changes are progressing. We are confident that Wal-Mart stores will be among the greenest on the block.”

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WAL-MART TO BUILD NEAR PROTECTED CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS?

Wal-Mart and the Wilderness. [Hardtac and Hard Times]

Before I say another word, let me remind you that the Civil War Preservation Trust is NOT a knee-jerk, anti-development group; we do not assume that all developers are bad people, and we do not oppose responsible economic growth. In fact, there are several developers who have worked very closely with us to save battlefield land. We welcome and seek out such partnerships!

Stop Wal-Mart [Rantings Of A Civil War Historian]

There are three major corporations that I absolutely despise. I absolutely and categorically refuse to do business with two of them...The third is the Walton empire. Wal-Mart is notorious for forcing its way into communities and killing off local businesses, whether it’s wanted or not. In many instances, it’s not wanted, but it matters not to Wal-Mart. The latest atrocity by Wal-Mart is probably the most unforgivable of all: it wants to build one of its superstores ON the Wilderness battlefield, regardless of the historical significance of the ground, and regardless of what the community might have to say about it. It MUST be stopped.

CWPT Leads Effort To Stop Wal-Mart At The Wilderness [National Trust For Historic Preservation]

Leading the charge against the Wal-Mart plan are CWPT and the Warrenton-based Piedmont Environmental Council. Their “Wilderness Battlefield Coalition” also includes the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Wilderness, and Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields. Representatives of all six organizations signed the letter.

Wal-Mart is Wiping Out American History - Literally [La Vida Locavore]

Now Wal-Mart wants to do more than just censoring books and music, putting entire towns’ worth of Moms ‘n Pops out of business, and basically selling America to China to wipe out American culture and history. What could be worse and more un-American than that? Oh, funny you should ask. They want to build a Supercenter on the site of the Civil War Battle of Wilderness.

THE UNIONIZATION OF WAL-MART CANADA

Wal-Mart is not above the law. [Writing On The Wal]

So what did I miss while I was in lovely Southern California? “Gatineau Wal-Mart workers awarded contract: Arbitrator imposes only labour pact for retailing giant in North America” [Yes, I see that Robert has already covered this story, but do you really expect me to leave news like this alone?] My source, The Ottawa Citizen offers the full context:

Wal-Mart: 8 Unionized Employees [Mindful Mission]

“Incompatible?" Really? Paying decent wages and giving decent benefits are “incompatible” with the way you do business? Thanks for reminding me why I have not shopped at Wal-Mart in years.

TOM COUGHLIN RAKES IN THE CASH

Wal-Mart, Coughlin settle [Arkansas Blog]

The Morning News account indicates Judge Jay Finch ordered reporters out of the courtroom on the ground that it was a meeting room where parties were discussing settlement. But the minute the judge and a court reporter sat down to have an agreement entered into the record, I’d think court was in session. Absent a compelling reason not apparent here, the session should have been open.

I’ve been doing this Wal-Mart blogging thing for far too long [Writing On The Wal]

This is my first greatest hits post, devoted to the guy who’s now $6.75 million richer, Tom Coughln. Here’s me from July 19, 2005…

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More good news out of Canada: UFCW is beginning to map out its strategy to use the victory in Gatineau as a springboard to unionize other Canadian Wal-Mart stores:

In Quebec, hearings are underway before arbitrator Corriveau for a collective agreement for unionized Wal-Mart employees at a store in St. Hyacinthe. And the UFCW is now reportedly interested in unionizing the 240 employees at the Wal-Mart store in Gatineau, next to the garage.

It’s hard to underestimate the importance of the victory in Gatineau. All Wal-Mart Canada associates have seen that the Gatineau contract has immediately raised starting wages from $8.40 to $10.89. And aside from good press and momentum, a legal precedent has been set in Quebec - which should be harder to reverse in Canada than in the U.S..

Union ramping up Wal-Mart drive [Montreal Gazette]:

Union leaders are preparing to use a history-making collective agreement won by nine Wal-Mart garage workers to organize more of the retailer’s Canadian stores.

The United Food and Commercial Workers, which negotiated the Quebec contract, is especially interested in Wal-Mart Canada Corp.’s Supercentres, which have undercut rivals and forced down wages in Ontario.

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