What’ll they think of next?

Wal-Mart is using the Canadian judicial system to undermine workers’ rights

Canadians should take note of the situation in Weyburn, Saskatchewan because it demonstrates our courts are just another device in Wal-Mart’s union busting toolbox.

On April 19, 2004 UFCW Canada applied for certification for the Wal-Mart in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and hearings on the application commenced.

According to the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB), 90 percent of all cases are decided within ten days of the last hearing date.

The last hearing date for the Weyburn Wal-Mart application was in December 2005.

Yet three years since the original application was filed, Wal-Mart workers in Weyburn are still waiting to find out whether or not they can bargain collectively because Wal-Mart seems to play by a different set of rules.

Justice delayed is justice denied is the Wal-Mart way, as the company has repeatedly hook-checked the Canadian judicial system and labour boards to frustrate the unionization of its stores.

Early on in the Weyburn proceedings, Wal-Mart demonstrated its contempt toward the SLRB – a provincial institution that has governed the labour relations process in Saskatchewan for decades – by claiming that the board did not have the authority to request an internal document entitled A Manager’s Toolbox to Remaining Union Free.  When the board naturally insisted to see the document, Wal-Mart took the parties involved on a legal goose chase that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court refused to hear the argument. Wal-Mart was forced to return to the SLRB (this after a six-month delay); now claiming that no such document ever existed in its Wal-Mart Canada offices.

While the above is brazen, the true depth of Wal-Mart’s audacity was revealed by its application to the Supreme Court that The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Act was a violation of its Charter rights. In particular, the Arkansas-based retailer contended that the Act disregarded its freedom of expression.

The corporation insisted that an employer should have the right to communicate with its workers in an unfettered manner; this from a company that was stuffing notes into its Canadian employees’ pay envelopes including press releases about the store it shut in Jonquiere, Quebec shortly after it unionized.

As for the Weyburn union drive, in July 2006 just when it looked like Weyburn Wal-Mart workers might finally get a definitive answer, Wal-Mart launched another pre-emptive assault on the board – this time alleging that because of bias the board was incapable of rendering a fair judgment.

So once again Wal-Mart dragged the charges up the judicial latter. First to the Queen’s Bench where Wal-Mart’s allegations were dismissed as “a fantasy”; then to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal; and lastly to the Supreme Court of Canada which this April 19th refused to hear Wal-Mart’s latest appeal.

Wal-Mart’s exploitation of the courts is not something isolated to Saskatchewan. The Bentonville based company has engaged in similar tactics in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. In Gatineau, Wal-Mart has been wrangling with the union and the Quebec Labour Board for over two years.

When you are the largest corporation in the world, massive legal bills are a drop in the bucket. In fact, Wal-Mart makes a net profit of $3 million per hour, every day of every week of the year. To put that into context, one hour’s earnings are enough to pay for 12,000 billable hours of legal work a week. Consequently, companies like Wal-Mart don’t have to think twice about tying up the courts for months all the while wasting judges’ time and taxpayers’ money.

However, there is a much larger cost to Canadians. By abusing the process of the Canadian judicial system, Wal-Mart is undermining the rights of our nation’s workers. Wal-Mart knows what happens when working people have to wait five, or six, or ten years to find out if they can form a union. They become demoralized. They move on or they, understandably, adopt a cynical view of the process; all of which erodes solidarity.

Ensuring that workers have the right to organize and bargain collectively plays a fundamental role in creating an equitable society. It is, in my mind, the best check on unfettered capitalism and the surest way to make sure that the gap between the rich and poor does not become a chasm.

As working in the service sector becomes a reality for more and more Canadians, we cannot afford to let the Wal-Marts of the world have their way with our institutions and, by doing so, turn our rights into illusions.

In solidarity,

Wayne Hanley
National President, UFCW Canada
President, UFCW Canada Local 175