http://transitional.pww.org/article/view/15506/Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 05/05/09 17:24
For the last six years the United Food and Commercial Workers union has led a national publicity campaign that has resulted in millions viewing Wal-Mart as a monster that chews up its workers and takes advantage of its customers. The union is now shifting gears, however, and renewing an effort it set aside six years ago – a drive to organize the workers employed by the retail giant.
The union has dispatched 60 organizers to 15 states to start the new campaign at Wal-Mart.
A UFCW, Local 464A union rep in northern New Jersey told the World that “during the Bush years, with regulatory bodies stacked against us and having to hold onto the rafters just to keep our heads above water, it was tough to start a major new organizing campaign, but now workers have some better things going for them.”
He explained: “For one thing, Wal-Mart really blew it and ended up losing on Election Day, last year. Obama won that election with the support of the workers and their unions even though Wal-Mart came out and tried to strong arm people. Wal-Mart managers were calling in workers and scaring them into voting against Obama. It blew up in their faces.”
The recent union victory at a Canadian Wal-Mart, he said, has also helped to reduce the fears, that some in the union had, that taking on Wal-Mart was just too big a task. Wal-Mart was forced to accept a 2-year contract imposed by a Canadian government arbitrator at its store in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. The company also appears poised to lose several other cases pending in Canada.
The union local rep said that for the UFCW itself the urgency of organizing Wal-Mart is becoming greater. He said that as contracts expire at the large Shoprite, A&P, Grand Union and Pathmark chains in New Jersey and southeastern New York State, for example, “those companies cite the economic threat they face from Wal-Mart as justification for trying to cut the wages and benefits they pay out.”
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