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Wal-Mart workers in Brossard intimidated by management to vote no to union Wal-Mart workers in Brossard, Quebec, have rejected union representation in a vote last Sunday. 149 workers voted against UFCW representing them and negotiating a collective agreement on their behalf, while 51 per cent wanted to have union representation. The Brossard vote comes after an escalating intimidation campaign by the Bentonville-based retail multinational, to scare its Canadian workers away from trade unions. Local UFCW representatives tell that Wal-Mart managers staged an anti-union demonstration last week at a Brossard restaurant, where a union meeting was being held. They threatened participants with the same fate as their colleagues in De Jonquière, would the vote for the union. In De Jonquière, Wal-Mart decided to close its shop after workers decided to ask UFCW to negotiate a collective agreement on their behalf. Rather than accepting a union presence, and improved wages and working conditions, the world's largest retailer cynically decided to put its workers on the streets. Yvon Bellemare of UFCW tells the Globe and Mail, a leading Montreal newspaper, that workers were just too afraid to loose their jobs to dare to vote for the union: - It's been intimidation, pure and simple," he said. In Quebec, a workplace can get organised if more than half of its workers sign union cards. If more than 35 per cent of them sign the cards, a labour relations commission - supervised vote like this one can be requested. Only a month ago, Quebec authorities ordered Wal-Mart to stop harassing and intimidating its workers. Not to much avail, apparently. |
