Wal-Mart Union Holds on a Little Longer
Retail megacorporation Wal-Mart has lost a fight to overturn a union in its St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, store.
And so the only Wal-Mart union in North America continues forward. But the article in the Toronto Star foreshadows Wal-Mart’s next step: When workers in Saguenay, Quebec formed a union, Wal-Mart shut down the store. Expect a similar fate in St-Hyacinthe. The company is even more anti-union than Whole Foods, bringing in ruthless response teams and security cameras when union rumors start and imposing strict controls about workers congregating in groups.
European Wal-Marts, required by law to allow unions, belie the company’s claim that unions make their stores unprofitable. So does the multibillionaire status of the Walton family members, for that matter. Unions are by no means perfect, but they do empower workers who can’t fight back on their won.
