UFCW on Wal-Mart

UFCW and Wal-Mart

On the www.walmartwatch.org website, labour relations developments in the United States are constantly monitored. Recently, the following statement was posted at this site:

A Word From The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is not requesting any consumer boycott or an AFL-CIO sanctioned boycott of Wal-Mart. However, if the company continues to mistreat workers and violate labor laws and the rights of employees, the UFCW would be forced to consider all options that would bring pressure on the company to stop its irresponsible practices and obey the law.

Wal-Mart employees are contacting the UFCW in ever-growing numbers wanting to find out how they can form a union in their stores. They are searching for a way to make their stores better places to work, and to associate with people who are strong enough to stand up to unfair Wal-Mart management practices, like favoritism and cutting hours.

The UFCW wants to make it clear that Wal-Mart workers don't have to face unfair management tactics alone. They have the support, encouragement, and assistance of the UFCW and the 14-million union families throughout the country.

While the UFCW surely hopes union families will shop for their groceries in stores that employ our union members, we also recognize that Wal-Mart stores sell many items that simply aren't available in other stores. When union families shop for those items in Wal-Mart, the UFCW asks that they do three simple things:

Let employees know that, as union members and customers, they support Wal-Mart workers and will help them achieve union representation to gain a real voice on the job for fair treatment and better wages and benefits;
Let Wal-Mart management know, that as union members and customers, they do not appreciate the company's anti-union propaganda, pressure, and fear tactics to which employees are subjected; and,
Tell Wal-Mart management that they will monitor their actions and hold them accountable for depriving employees of their free choice.

Most union members as well as large segments of the general public are becoming more aware of the vicious anti-unionism practiced in Bentonville. Wal- Mart's reaction to a pro-union vote of meat department employees in its Jacksonville, Tex., supercenter was to change the duties of meat departments in an appalling attempt to deny not only the Jacksonville workers but meat department employees at Wal-Mart stores across the country the right to freely exercise their choice for union representation. Sadly, instead of obeying the law, Wal-Mart pressures, intimidates, and fires workers who express pro-union support.

By boycotting stores, union members would be leaving Wal-Mart management free to continue to abuse and coerce workers in secret. The UFCW wants to open the doors and throw light on management's unfair employment practices, so Wal-Mart employees have an opportunity to see that union membership is the best way to make Wal-Mart a better place to work.

(10.8.)