Wal-Mart lost its complaint - Canadian St Hyacinthe are represented by UFCW

Wal-Mart complaint was thrown out:
Canadian St Hyacinthe workers are represented by UFCW

The Quebec Superior Court has rejected a bid by Wal-Mart to challenge a Quebec Labour Relations Commission union decision granting union certification to employees at its store in St-Hyacinthe, east of Montreal.

The Arkansas-based giant, which symbolizes corporate union-busting on a global scale, asked the court to add eight (presumably anti-union) names to the list of employees eligible to cast ballots in the unionizing drive, thus reducing support for the vote in favour of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) below the level needed for success.

The dispute centred on employees in several jobs within the store, including managerial positions and also auto repair shop employees, who had been excluded from the vote.

In dismissing the application for a judicial review, Judge Nicole Morneau accepted the manner in which the vote was conducted and supervised by the commission. She noted that it had relied on a Supreme Court of Canada decision in another Wal-Mart case (at Gatineau, Quebec) in ruling that auto repair employees should not participate in the vote.

She said the work done by store employees and auto repair shop workers differed to a degree that it was "not unreasonable" for the commission to exclude them.

Wal-Mart has a standard approach of legally challenging every possible aspect of a union drive (regardless of the cost) to prevent employees in any of its stores from exercising their rights to join a union.

Last year in Jonquiere, Quebec, after exhausting its legal options, Wal-Mart shut down a profitable store rather than allow a union (UFCW Canada) to gain a toehold in the company.

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has signed a formal protocol with the UFCW Canada, supporting its efforts to organize Wal-Mart employees across the country.