H&M Associates In Quebec Join The Union

UFCW Canada Local 500 has applied to represent workers at an H&M store in Joliette, Quebec after a majority of the workers indicated their support for union representation.

The application for certification was filed with the Quebec labour Relations Commission following an enthusiastic card-signing campaign by associates and sales advisors at the Joliette location of the popular global retail fashion chain.

The store in Joliette, about 70 kilometres northeast of Montreal, would become the first unionized H&M in Quebec, and the second H&M to be unionized in Canada. In October, workers at an H&M store in the Toronto area were certified as the first unionized H&M in Canada following a successful UFCW Canada organizing campaign there.

UFCW Canada Local 500 is part of UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers), the largest private-sector union in the country. Outside of Canada, UFCW International also represents H&M workers at 16 stores in the New York City area. Thousands of H&M workers are also unionized at H&M locations across Europe.

H&M, the Swedish-based multinational, publicizes the fact it supports workers' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.

“We are very proud of the Joliette H&M workers and welcome them to our union,” says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley, “They join thousands of H&M associates who already belong to our union and together we will make H&M a better place to work.”