Another union vote at Wal-Mart in Quebec

[CHIMO]

BROSSARD, QUE. - Employees at a Wal-Mart store in Brossard, Que., are voting Friday on a bid to certify a union.

They could be the third store in the province to organize, with a fourth preparing for a vote.

But there are suggestions Wal-Mart will leave Quebec before allowing unions into its stores.

Even the union agrees that with 46 stores in Quebec, Wal-Mart may decide to do so. But Bolduc hopes Quebecers will send a message to the store that they are Quebecers first and consumers second.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/01/walmart050401.html

All for one and one for all.

[Poppyseedman]

1. This is making it real simple for Wal-Mart

There just won't be any Wally Worlds in Quebec.

Wally World will sell to someone and buy them back later under a different name.

[Spazito]

4. Nope, they will be taken before the LBR and be found liable

and The Kingdom of Corporate Whoredom doesn't come in under a different name, they are very proud of their Whoredom.

Edited to add missing word.

[Poppyseedman]

6. Found liable and pay their reduced negotiated fine

and spent lot's of money marketing how much prices have gone up since Wal-Mart was "forced" to leave.

A few years down the road, lo and behold a Wally World store will appear in a economical hard hit town.

[Spazito]

9. Canadians are becoming VERY aware of Wal-Marts

destructive effects on communities and the fight against them is growing. Wal-Mart will either have to accept the Canadian belief in fair wages and benefits for employees or leave. Wal-Mart will run out of places to exploit probably sooner than later now.

[harpboy_ak]

13. We should do what the Quebeçois are doing!

Canadians are becoming VERY aware of Wal-Marts destructive effects on communities and the fight against them is growing. Wal-Mart will either have to accept the Canadian belief in fair wages and benefits for employees or leave. Wal-Mart will run out of places to exploit probably sooner than later now.

So far Juneau has thankfully been able to avoid Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and most other big box stores, although smaller Alaska towns (Kodiak, Ketchikan) have been invaded by Wal-Mart. Rumors keep circulating that Wal-Mart has been looking at the KMart Super Center that's been empty since KMart closed all their Alaska stores 2 years ago.

Wal-Mart may not like coming in to a market with base wages that are well above the rest of the state. Since Juneau is the state capital, employers have to compete with state wages and benefits, and sometimes don't have much talent to pick from.

Intelligent workers get jobs with state government, leaving the private sector to compete with higher compensation or end up with airheads. New managers at the local Fred Meyer would fire employees they considered marginal, based on their experience in other, less isolated labor markets, and then found that all the applicants were far worse than the employee they fired! It usually only had to happen 2 or 3 times, and they quickly learned that if they want competent employees they have to treat them decently. KMart's relatively low wages caused a lot of turnover.

[Spazito]

2. I am very proud of the people of Quebec...

for fighting the good fight. Even if Wal-Mart, aka the Kingdom of Corporate Whoredom, closes every store in Quebec the people win. I can only hope that this happens in EVERY province. Having no Wal-Marts in Canada is a win/win situation, imo.

[mitchtv]

3. Ah Canada, Te amo

the morans around here have opened California's first superstore. And approved another couple. meanwhile they will close 2 in the small city(less prosperous) where I live. They pass that constituional amendment amd I'm atta here
Union and Proud.

[Anakin Skywalker]

5. VIVE LA QUEBEC!

[applegrove]

7. Walmart is no longer the only place where you can get cheap stuff

from China. Every other store has it too. And the small business person does not loos their kick at the can.

[MrPrax]

8. What if Everyone Thought Like Quebec..?

Quebec is becoming powerhouse for Progressive politics in Canada

F*ck Wal-Mart...it's very easy...most Liberals in the DU forum hate Wal-Mart for various reasons...

Unionization is ONE way to rid Wal-Mart from your neighborhoods...simple and direct..

[Spazito]

10. Totally agree!

We force Wal-Mart to accept fair wages and benefits and adherence to Labour law as part of doing business in Canada or they leave, either way, it is a win/win for Canada.

[Q3JR4]

11. To Quebec and the rest of Canada,

:yourock:

When the country is getting me down and the right wing drivel that is spewed forth from the orifices of the conservative filth infecting North America starts to get me down Canada is always there to remind me that somewhere on this continent things are better.

[CHIMO]

12. Wal-Mart workers reject unionization

Employees at a Wal-Mart store near Montreal voted resoundingly against joining a union in a secret ballot yesterday.

It was the first such vote since Wal-Mart's bombshell announcement in February that it will close its store in Jonquière, Que., where a union was attempting to negotiate the U.S. retailer's first contract in North America.

The vote count showed that 149 workers voted against unionizing, while only 51 voted in favour.

Union officials alleged that workers at the Brossard store, on Montreal's South Shore, faced intimidation in the run-up to the vote. According to Yvon Bellemare, an official with the United Food and Commercial Workers, a group of anti-union demonstrators showed up at a union meeting last week at a restaurant in Brossard.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050401.wxwalm2/BNStory/National/

Back to the drawing board.