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Wal-Mart's systematic union busting continues in Canada. The latest result was a vote yesterday against union representation in a Windsor, Ontario store. UFCW Canada has filed charges against the Bentonville multinational.

What happened in this Wal-Mart store is indeed a strange story. It used to be organised ten years ago, with the steel workers' union. After a union-busting campaign, where the conservative Ontario Premier Mike Harris was clearly involved, the store went non-union once again.

When the Windsor workers now wanted UFCW to represent them, the same secret operative who ran the previous union busting campaign resurfaced on the scene, UFCW Canada tells. He was once again conducting the operation which lead to the workers being too scared to vote for union representation in yesterday's election.

The unfair labour practice charges were filed Monday by UFCW Canada. - Wal-Mart was up to dirty tricks in Windsor a decade ago and they’re up to them again, the union's  national director, Michael J. Fraser says.

In 1997 the Ontario Labour Relations Board certified a union bargaining unit at a Wal-Mart store on Tecumseh Road East in Windsor, Ontario, after the board determined that Wal-Mart had intimidated workers during an organizing drive at the store.

Soon after this, the conservative government of Mike Harris changed the Ontario Labour Relations Act. It stripped the Labour Relations Board of its power to automatically certify a union in the wake of employer intimidation. An anti-union petition campaign eventually led to the Windsor store being decertified.

“The charges include evidence from Wal-Mart workers who led the anti-union movement back then that they received equipment, charge accounts and money to run their campaign, Fraser says.

- They also received airfare, and accommodations, and  500 dollars each for reimbursement of meals of less than 100 dollars, all paid for by the Premier’s office for appearing with Mike Harris the day he announced his changes to the labour act.

Recently, Wal-Mart announced that it will close its store in Jonquière, where workers had just unionised. The company's intention was clearly to scare other workers off from supporting union representation. UFCW has included also this action in its complaint to the Labour Relations Board.

Wal-Mart has chosen to compete with a concept of social dumping. It seeks an advantage from lower wages and lesser benefits than what other retailers are providing for their workers. One of the nastiest examples of this is Wal-Mart's denial of affordable health care for most of its workers and their families in the United States. This is now putting health care programmes all through the retail industry under considerable pressure.

It is obvious that the last thing which the Bentonville management wants is a union for its workers, who could then negotiate collective agreements and improve their employment and working conditions. It is equally clear that Wal-Mart is in a continuous, systematic and flagrant violation of universally accepted and legally binding international workers' rights.