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Frustrated when Wal-Mart wouldn't repair broken equipment and ignored their complaints about potential safety hazards, Tire and Lube Express (TLE) workers at the Wal-Mart Super-center in New Castle in Pennsylvania decided they needed to get the attention of corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. So they started organizing a union in June 2000.

Before the ink was dry on the union authorization cards, a platoon of corporate big-wigs and union-busters from Arkansas descended on Store #2365. Top management brass couldn't do things fast enough for the workers, soliciting problems and correcting long-ignored issues on the spot. They got rid of the TLE District Manager and brought in someone new. A notorious penny-pincher when it comes to labor costs, Wal-Mart even hired eight additional workers to alleviate the chronic short-staffing in the TLE.

"Illegally discourage the workers'
support for the Union"

But a National Labor Relations Board investigation into charges filed by UFCW Local 880 found evidence that the company's motivation was to illegally discourage the workers' support for the Union. The Labor Board issued a formal complaint last Friday and ordered a hearing before an administrative law judge to begin on January 15, 2002.

"The NLRB is making it clear it will hold Wal-Mart accountable for any illegalities in its program to frustrate its workers' efforts to form Unions," said UFCW Executive Vice President Michael E. Leonard, director of strategic programs. "Wal-Mart won't fight fair, because Bentonville doesn't know how to be fair with its employees."

"The masters of power-buying for 4,000-plus stores understand all too well the power that one million employees would have to cut a better deal for Wal-Mart workers," he added.

The New Castle complaint includes charges the company:

• Illegally told workers it would install new equipment, hire additional workers, and replace the District Manager to show them they didn't need a "third party";
• Unlawfully engaged in surveillance of its employees' union activities;
• Hired eight additional workers, replaced the District Manager, and installed new equipment in order to undermine support for the Union; and
• Promoted one of TLE employees to a position outside of the department to dilute Union support.

Wal-Mart is already facing several trials on other complaints involving unfair labor practices in a number of stores, including:

• Kingman, AZ, where the CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Thomas Coughlin is charged with personally soliciting employee problems to undermine support for the Union in another TLE department. A trial date is pending.
• Las Vegas, NV, where a half dozen officials of the nation's largest retailer face two separate trials for massive labor law violations in both Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores, including illegal termination and discipline of pro-Union employees. The Wal-Mart stores trial is set to also begin on January 15, 2002, while the Sam's Club trial is set to open a month later on February 12.
• College Station, TX, where a trial date is pending for over a dozen violations of labor law, including threatening the workers' bonus.
• Jacksonville, TX, where 10 officials from Bentonville, including two vice presidents and the company spokeswoman, are accused of illegally getting rid of the meat department employees who voted for the Union in a historic election in February 2000. The trial is set to open December 15th, after the NLRB denied the company attorneys request for a postponement.
• Pueblo, CO, and Grafton, WV, where the company is charged with illegally discriminating against the Union providing information to the employees about their rights under the law. Trials are set for November 14 in Clarksburg, WV, and December 13th in Pueblo.

"All-out corporate attack on its workers"

"Wal-Mart will try to spin this latest complaint as typical Union allegations, ignoring the NLRB's year-long investigation and decision to prosecute the company," said Leonard. "But the evidence of an all-out corporate attack on its workers to keep them from forming a Union is mounting and no longer can be denied."

Leonard noted that an administrative law judge recently found Wal-Mart broke the law by not allowing an employee in Tahlequah, OK, who was wearing a pro-Union T-shirt to enter his store to shop. The same judge later found that Wal-Mart also illegally tried to prevent Union hand-billers in Orlando, FL, from distributing information to women workers about gender discrimination at Wal-Mart.

The UFCW is the largest organization of retail workers in North America, with 1.4 million members. Workers at retail food industry leaders such as Kroger and Safeway are members of the UFCW.

United Food and Commercial Workers Union: A Voice for Working America — www.ufcw.org