One of the cornerstones of Wal-Mart's anti-union strategy will go on
trial in Texas, the United States. This is the result of a National
Labor Relations Board complaint issued on Halloween. The discount
chain illegally tells hourly-paid department managers in a
super-center that they cannot engage in union activities.
An administrative law judge will be assigned to hear the
complaint in the near future. The complaint also cites Wal-Mart for
unlawfully (1) creating the impression among employees that their
union activities are under surveillance, (2) interrogating employees
about their union activities, and (3) soliciting employee
grievances.
"For years, Wal-Mart has tricked hourly department managers
into thinking they were part of the management team and, therefore,
obligated to report any signs of union activity in their departments
so that union-busters from Bentonville can be summoned to put out
the fire," said Michael Leonard, a vice president of the United
Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW).
A former hourly department manager in Store #945, 702 West Loop
289, filed the charge in August protesting that Wal-Mart District
Manager David Craig told a June 7 meeting of new hourly department
managers from several stores in the La Quinta Inn that "by
law" they could not be involved in union activity because they
were "management".
Wal-Mart: First line of defense against
the union
Craig instructed the department managers that they were the
company's "first line of defense in protecting Wal-Mart from
the union, namely the UFCW," and said they were "obligated
to report union activity directly to salary management as soon as
[the managers] discovered that it had taken place," according
to the complainant.
Store Manager Barry Hart later reinforced Craig's message when he
illegally interrogated the department manager about union activity
he had been involved in on his own time, stating it was
"against Wal-Mart policy concerning department managers."
Following the meeting, the department manager began looking for
another job.
Few, if any, hourly-paid Wal-Mart managers meet the threshold
tests to be truly "management" under federal labor law
because they do not hire, fire, or discipline employees. In large
retail operations, like a Wal-Mart super-center, department managers
have the closest contact with hourly employees and often have great
influence with them.
Tries to get department managers to spy
for the company
"Wal-Mart tries to hoodwink department managers into spying
for the company by telling them that they are management," said
Leonard, who is also the UFCW's director of strategic programs.
"They use department managers as the shock troops for their
anti- union program, which is laid out in three manuals--'A
Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free', 'Labor Relations and
You', and 'Sam's Club Supervisor's Handbook'."
The union is posting all three anti-union manuals on its web site
for Wal-Mart employees "so they can read for themselves how the
company plots to deceive employees into thinking the union is bad
for them, and trains supervisors to express phony concern for their
grievances," Leonard added. While the complaint only applies to
the Lubbock store, Leonard said it will establish an important
precedent for all stores. He noted:
"Wal-Mart's M.O. is to test the limits of the law, and to
only change its prepackaged anti-union program when it is forced to,
which it did when the NLRB previously ruled against a company policy
that employees couldn't talk about wages and benefits with their
co-workers. That 'policy' statement disappeared from the annual
wage-and-benefit statements employees receive in the Spring,
although employees tell us it is now communicated orally."
