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In Germany, Wal-Mart's workers are well organised in UNI Commerce affiliated ver.di. This is not popular with management, who have resorted to bullying shop stewards in an attempt to squeeze more out of its personnel. The approach is well known from the U.S. home market, where threats and intimidation are daily components of the company's 'labour relations'.  The recent decision to close a store in Canada rather than to accept that workers get a voice through their trade union is now being repeated in Germany. Here, shop stewards are pressed to accept declining working conditions - otherwise stores will be closed.  (Picture from a ver.di - UNI Commerce - UFCW seminar at a Wal-Mart store in Hamburg in 2001)

It is not only in Canada and in the United States that Wal-Mart resorts to strong pressure to squeeze out more from its workers, for less pay. In Germany, UNI Commerce affiliate ver.di reports on management threats to close stores if shop stewards do not accept cuts in personnel and poorer  employment conditions. 

The leading German news magazine Der Spiegel tells on its online site about the extortion methods employed by the Wal-Mart management. Quoting ver.di, the magazine tells about threats to close stores if workers do not accept longer opening hours with less personnel. The German UNI Commerce affiliate says that also top Wal-Mart boss Kay Hafner has been personally putting pressure on workers, threatening them to close down stores if they do not accept.

- Wal-Mart wants to use every hour of the allowed shop opening time without allocating more personnel for this, says Ulrich Dalibor, head of ver.di's retail trade sector. 

- Instead, jobs are cut and people have to work more. This creates resistance.

- Time and time again, management representatives threaten shop stewards with closing their stores unless they agree on all demands, particularly concerning working hours, says Ulrich Dalibor to Der Spiegel. - This is a methodical approach.

The German revelations come only days after Wal-Mart declared that it will close its store in Jonquière in Canada. This was the only unionised Wal-Mart in North America, and the workers had just begun their collective agreement negotiations. The company's decision has been broadly condemned as a grave violation of workers' rights.

In China, it took an intervention by the government before Wal-Mart accepted that its workers join the All China Federation of Trade Unions.

In Germany, where Wal-Mart's workers are well organised in ver.di, the company has not been doing well. This would probably add to the irritation of the Bentonville, Arkansas based management, who are not used to take their workers' needs or views into account.