The two German commerce trade unions, HBV and DAG, believe that Wal-Mart may want to make its workers pay for its poor economic results. Last year, it is said to have made a loss of 400 Million German Marks, equivalent to 200 Million U.S. Dollars. One of the reasons for this is reportedly the failure to establish a personnel policy, which would make the Wal-Mart stores competitive in the tough retail market in Germany.

Lately, Wal-Mart is said to be discussing a purchase of Metro, Europe's second largest commerce company. Apparently, the U.S. based multinational is interested in Real, which is Metro's hypermarket chain, operating in Germany, Poland and Turkey. Wal-Mart has recently declared that it intends to add another 50 superstores to its German network and does not close out that this could be done through a deal with Metro's owners.

In the United States, its home country, Wal-Mart is a poor employer. Wages are below collective agreement levels, large groups of workers do not have a health insurance and the company goes to great lengths to stop them from joining trade unions. Recently, Wal-Mart was caught for selling clothes produced under bad conditions in Burma, a harsh military dictatorship. 

When Wal-Mart bought large British retailer Asda last year, it immediately initiated an aggressive price war. This is now being stepped up as the company's first Asda Wal-Mart Superstore joins the Asda hypermarkets. Competitors are already seeing share prices going down and even more seriously, the British commercial workers are beginning to feel the squeeze as employers intensify their search for savings. 

Both in Germany and the United Kingdom, Wal-Mart is already showing its real nature. Through low labour costs and heavy price dumping, the company tries to force competitors out of business. Particularly small and medium size enterprises, which in Europe still employ the largest number of commercial workers, are now fighting for their existence. Those enterprises which survive, be they large or small, are increasingly pressed to focus on a price competition and to compromise the quality of their products and services.

Wal-Mart is clearly showing itself as a danger for the whole of European commerce. It is a job killer and it puts consumers' interests at risk. This is a huge company, with more than a million workers, almost four times as many as the closest competitor Carrefour. And Wal-Mart does not hesitate to use its position to put pressure on the others, be it when buying from industry or wholesale trade or when waging price wars with other retailers.   

The refusal of Wal-Mart to adopt the German collective agreements or to join the employers' association is a strong warning signal. If the company is allowed to further expand, it will endanger all collective agreements in European commerce. It will cause unemployment, not only in retailing but also in wholesale trade and industry, which will be forced to reduce personnel costs to be able to meet Wal-Mart's price limits.

The HBV and DAG strike at Wal-Mart in Germany shows that workers will and can fight for their rights. Some years ago, another U.S. multinational, Toys"R"Us, was driven out of Scandinavia when it did not respect the established labour relations rules. Wal-Mart has much to learn from this.