Wal-Mart Closes Unionized Store in Quebec
Fri Apr 29, 5:32 PM ET
The Canadian unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. closed a store in Quebec on Friday where employees had obtained union certification and were seeking a first labor contract.
Kevin Groh, spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, said the 130,000-square-foot Jonquiere store closed at noon. Its 176 workers will be paid until May 6, the original target date the company had set for closing the outlet.
"It's slightly misleading to say it closed a week early," Groh said.
Union officials accused Wal-Mart of shutting the store a week earlier than planned to avoid publicity over the controversial closure.
Yvon Bellemare, president of the Quebec branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, demanded that Wal-Mart admit it closed the store to avoid a negotiated labor contract, not because of financial difficulties at the outlet.
"We are asking for your commitment that no stores where employees favor unionization will be closed, and that you will immediately advise your 'associates'," Bellemare wrote in a letter to the president of Wal-Mart Canada.
The union is spearheading a drive to represent workers at more than a dozen of Wal-Mart's 235 stores in Canada.
The store at Jonquiere was the first in North America where workers obtained union certification. Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, has resisted efforts to unionize its stores.
Groh said that in addition to one week of additional paid leave, Jonquiere workers were given 12 weeks' working notice of the closure and were eligible for two weeks of severance pay for each year employed at the store.
Most of the workers had been employed at the store since its opening almost four years ago, which means they were entitled to seven or eight weeks of severance pay.
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