quote:

---

The retailing behemoth, whose $10 billion annual profits are based on low prices, low expenses and its relentless pace of store openings, announced it will shut the doors here May 6 after workers voted to make this the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America.

---

quote:

---

"It's like we are digging our own grave," said store employee Nathalie Dubois, 38, a single mother with no other job to go to, as she helped pack up the store

---

NO NO NO! It's fucking well not! This makes me SO ANGRY. It's not 'digging your own grave' when your employer decides that because you asserted your legal rights to workplace representation that they'll lay you off. It's them digging it for you, and then blaming you.

Goddamnit, WalMart are really good at manipulation, too.

Edited for missing words, again.

[ 14 April 2005: Message edited by: Amy ]

quote:

---

Some here in Jonquiere don't believe the company's claim that the store was losing money. They say the chain sacrificed the store to make a point to its employees across Canada and the United States, where union organizers are involved in dozens of organizing drives and court battles.

"They closed it to be a threat to other unions," said Tremblay, the mayor. "We know that for Wal-Mart, Jonquiere is nothing. They wanted to close it to make a lesson to other Wal-Marts."

---

quote:

---

"It's like we are digging our own grave," said store employee Nathalie Dubois, 38, a single mother with no other job to go to, as she helped pack up the store

---

Well apparently its a lesson learned and repeated gleefully in the media.

quote:

---

Unions across Canada should be calling for a boycott against this nasty employer.

---

The UFCW as I understand has not called for a boycott of Walmart in order not to "hurt" the other organizing drives.

Instead they've urged folks to talk to Walmart workers in a supportive way about how you support their right to unionize.

Although all kinds of progressive-minded folks have had an "unofficial" boycott of Walmart ever since they entered Canada.

Hear me out. I know that it's going to mean that a lot of people will be out of work. But it stands to reason that people are still going to need the products they were buying at Walmart, right? And that surely there will be other businesses that will fill the gap.

Of course, then again, it's not like mom-and-pop stores are any better when it comes to labour standards - and in many cases, probably worse in some ways.

Still...I like the idea of telling big box retailers that they're just not welcome unless they're willing to allow workers to organize, and unless they're willing to negotiate fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. And that doesn't just go for Walmart, but for any store.

quote:

---

Still...I like the idea of telling big box retailers that they're just not welcome unless they're willing to allow workers to organize, and unless they're willing to negotiate fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. And that doesn't just go for Walmart, but for any store.

---

Interestingly, there was a strike at Eastern Airlines in the U.S. back in the 1980's where workers were in effect, striking to put themselves out of work.

I would consider this an unfair labour practice and would hope that a Labour Board could order the employer to reopen.

But I understand there was a Supreme Court Case about a year and a half ago that restricted the Quebec Labour Board from ordering such remedies. I posted a thread about it a while back but didn't get too many responses, so I'll try again:

quote:

---

"It's like we are digging our own grave," said store employee Nathalie Dubois, 38, a single mother with no other job to go to, as she helped pack up the store.

---

edited to change "strike" to "unionization"

[ 14 April 2005: Message edited by: Amy ]

quote:

---

Radiorahim, do you (or any of the lawyers here) know what legal remedies a union has available in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada if an employer closes down its business expressly to bust a union?

---

Sorry but I don't know the Quebec Labour Code that well so don't know what legal remedies are available. Maybe Jeff House knows? He's a lawyer.

But I suppose, UFCW's lawyers are going to try to make that case. I doubt that the Quebec labour board could order Walmart to re-open.

However its possible that they could impose some other kind of penalty on Walmart if they convict them of unfair labour practices. And whatever they do, Walmart will end up appealing all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

quote:

---

NO NO NO! It's fucking well not!

---