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Once again Wal-Mart tries to stop workers from joining the UFCW

UNI Commerce affiliate UFCW has been forced to withdraw a claim for trade union recognition at a Wal-Mart supercenter. This was done to protect workers against continued heavy-handed attacks by management representatives.

Workers at the Dubuque, Iowa Wal-Mart Supercenter Tire and Lube Express Department hoped to have the chance to make their voices heard for a better workplace with union representation. They won't have that chance, because the company's massive anti-worker program made a free and fair vote impossible.

Workers viciously attacked

The viciousness of the company attack forced the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 431 to withdraw the petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Friday, February 15, 2002, in order to spare the employees further abuse.

The NLRB is currently investigating UFCW charges that Wal-Mart managers in Dubuque:

• Illegally threatened workers with withdrawal of a store-level bonus and benefits until the union was out of the picture.
• Illegally intimidated workers by claiming the company would never bargain with the union even if they won the election.
• Illegally harassed and victimized workers who appeared to support the union effort.
• Carried out illegal surveillance of workers activities.
• Refused to provide adequate tools and equipment to the workers. Managers claimed they would replace the broken tools only when the union was gone.
• Illegally retaliated against a strong union supporter by changing his work schedule to make it impossible for him to work.

The election was scheduled for this week for the 18 workers in the tire and lube express department in Dubuque, after the company failed in an effort to deny the workers a vote by challenging whether an automotive service unit was eligible to vote. Wal-Mart's tactic was clearly a delaying manoeuvre considering that the NLRB has consistently found four such units were appropriate for separate elections in other locations.

Delay tactics by management

"Clearly, Wal-Mart used the delay caused by the company forcing the NLRB to hold yet another hearing on TLE units to put its anti-union program into play. The UFCW's number one priority is helping Wal-Mart workers build a better future. In cases like this one in Dubuque, workers were suffering from Wal-Mart's heavy-handed assault on worker rights," said Mike Leonard, UFCW Executive Vice President and Director, Strategic Programs Department. "The Dubuque workers are the latest victims in Wal-Mart's corporate attack on its workers."

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

• Kingman, Arizona, 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 has not yet been set.
• Las Vegas, Nevada, 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 under way.
• College Station, Texas, where a trial date is pending for over a dozen violations of labor law, including threatening the workers' bonus.
• In Jacksonville, Texas, where 10 officials from Bentonville, including two vice presidents and the company spokeswoman, were accused of illegally terminating the meat department employees who voted for the Union in a historic election in February 2000, the company settled the charges at the 11th hour with back pay for four workers. Since Wal-Mart's legal philosophy is "What Did We Do Wrong?", which means the company will refuse to settle cases unless it did something wrong, the settlement can be viewed as an acknowledgment the company broke the law.