- Mar 29, 2004
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Wal-Mart Canada Corp. announced Wednesday it will close a Quebec store whose unionized employees were involved in negotiations to obtain their first labour contract.
?Despite nine days of meetings over three months, we've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably,? company spokesman Andrew Pelletier said in a statement.
The store, which will close in May, is located in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City. Nearly 200 employees received union accreditation last summer, making it the chain's only unionized outlet at the time.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union was not available for immediate comment but Claudia Tremblay, a cashier at the store, said many employees burst into tears when managers told them about the news Wednesday morning.
?Many people cried, including myself,? Tremblay, 29, said in an interview. ?I'm a mother of two children and I'm separated from my husband. It's very difficult.?
Tremblay said she abstained from the unionization vote, adding she was upset that her non-commital stance won't save her job.
Pelletier said the union walked away on Feb. 1 from the collective-bargaining process, which was scheduled to run until at least March 15, and told the company and the conciliator it would be applying for arbitration.
?On Feb. 2, 2005, the union officially applied for first contract arbitration and in doing so acknowledged that the company and union were not likely to reach a collective agreement,? he said.
Employees at another Wal-Mart store in St-Hyacinthe, east of Montreal, have also been accredited recently.
Wal-Mart operates two other non-unionized stores in the Saguenay-Lac St-Jean region.
Wal-Mart, whose headquarters are in Mississauga, Ont., operates 256 stores and six Sam's Clubs across Canada with more than 70,000 employees.
This is the same stuff they pulled when they ditched butcher jobs when the butchers tried to unionize...There answer sell no more fresh meat -just packaged!
Congrats to the newly wal-mart free city. Now we know what will shut them down. -Their own greed! :beer:
They met 3 times a month? WTF were the management doing the other 27 days of the month? Obviously not working toward a solution. It is obvious keeping their underpaid workers working part-time without benefits and subsidized by food stamps while sucking down corporate welfare is their agenda -not good business sense
?Despite nine days of meetings over three months, we've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably,? company spokesman Andrew Pelletier said in a statement.
The store, which will close in May, is located in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City. Nearly 200 employees received union accreditation last summer, making it the chain's only unionized outlet at the time.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union was not available for immediate comment but Claudia Tremblay, a cashier at the store, said many employees burst into tears when managers told them about the news Wednesday morning.
?Many people cried, including myself,? Tremblay, 29, said in an interview. ?I'm a mother of two children and I'm separated from my husband. It's very difficult.?
Tremblay said she abstained from the unionization vote, adding she was upset that her non-commital stance won't save her job.
Pelletier said the union walked away on Feb. 1 from the collective-bargaining process, which was scheduled to run until at least March 15, and told the company and the conciliator it would be applying for arbitration.
?On Feb. 2, 2005, the union officially applied for first contract arbitration and in doing so acknowledged that the company and union were not likely to reach a collective agreement,? he said.
Employees at another Wal-Mart store in St-Hyacinthe, east of Montreal, have also been accredited recently.
Wal-Mart operates two other non-unionized stores in the Saguenay-Lac St-Jean region.
Wal-Mart, whose headquarters are in Mississauga, Ont., operates 256 stores and six Sam's Clubs across Canada with more than 70,000 employees.
This is the same stuff they pulled when they ditched butcher jobs when the butchers tried to unionize...There answer sell no more fresh meat -just packaged!
Congrats to the newly wal-mart free city. Now we know what will shut them down. -Their own greed! :beer:
They met 3 times a month? WTF were the management doing the other 27 days of the month? Obviously not working toward a solution. It is obvious keeping their underpaid workers working part-time without benefits and subsidized by food stamps while sucking down corporate welfare is their agenda -not good business sense
:thumbsup:
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