Wal-Mart ordered to stop harassing workers in Quebec
MONTREAL - The Quebec Labour Relations Board has ordered Wal-Mart Canada to stop intimidating workers who want to form a union.
The board's ruling cited efforts to "harass and intimidate" three employees at a Sainte-Foy store outside Quebec City.
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The ruling says a Wal-Mart manager demanded one cashier give him the names of union sympathizers.
Louis Bolduc of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which is trying to organize workers at the store, said Wal-Mart was using unfair tactics.
"[Getting] the employees in an office with two top managers of the store, asking the employees about the organizing of the union," Bolduc said.
"'How many cards? Are you involved?' You shouldn't do that. If you do that, something is going to happen to you.'"
This is the second time Wal-Mart has been reprimanded for trying to intimidate workers in Quebec, Bolduc said.
Wal-Mart has been ordered to stop intimidating employees and to display the ruling in the store's lunchroom for 30 days.
Andrew Pelletier, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company will comply with the commission's ruling, but denied that Wal-Mart intimidated employees.
"Our corporate culture is based on open communication and the empowerment of people," he told the Canadian Press. "We believe people are empowered to make their own decisions."
Earlier this month, the company announced it would close its store in Jonquiere, Que. Last August, it became the only unionized Wal-Mart in North America when it won certification.
- FROM FEB. 9, 2005: Wal-Mart to close unionized Quebec store
The company said it was closing the Jonquiere outlet because of poor financial performance.
Last month, UFCW Canada won certification at another Wal-Mart store, in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que. A contract agreement has not been reached at that store.