Free Choice Doesn’t Need an Act: Wal-Mart Workers Organize Despite Fear

Wal-Mart employees are not waiting for the government to give them permission to make a free choice. Reportedly thousands of Wal-Mart employees have joined forces to rise up against what they are characterizing as the “anti-worker policies” of the world's largest retailer. According to a report by MarketWatch.com, Wal-Mart workers in 100 stores in 15 states have already signed union cards while lawmakers are still arguing about the proper way such signings should occur.

In a video posted on YouTube last week, current and former Wal-Mart employees are uncharacteristically vocal and public about their complaints against their employer and their desire to organize for better working conditions. Actions taken in the past by Wal-Mart management in response to unionization efforts have been interpreted as retaliatory, and have supposedly caused workers to fear consequences for participating in any organizing attempts.

In 2004, employees at a Wal-Mart store in Jonqiere, Quebec were organized to form a union by the United Food and Commercial Workers. It was the first unionized Wal-Mart workforce in North America. Coincidentally, Wal-Mart decided to close that store just seven months later.

A lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart, alleging that the closing of the Jonqiere store was used as a threat to all Wal-Mart employees about the consequences of unionization. Wal-Mart said that it closed that particular store for other reasons, and they also adamantly defended their right to do so. Quebec’s provincial labor commission upheld Wal-Mart’s right to close, as did a superior judge, and the provincial court of appeal. The case went to Canada’s Supreme Court in January.

Perhaps Wal-Mart did have a legitimate business reason for closing the Jonqiere store. Perhaps it also had a justifiable reason for closing a Tire & Lube Express store in Gatineau, Quebec just three months after workers there secured a collective bargaining agreement. Perhaps it was also a coincidence that meat-cutting departments were eliminated in all Wal-Mart owned stores just two weeks after one meat-cutting department in Jacksonville, TX won union recognition.