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Wal-Mart 1997 campaign to bust Windsor union leaves paper trail back to former Ontario premier's office

TORONTO, ON – Charges against Wal-Mart Canada have been filed with the Ontario Labour Relations Board outlining Wal-Mart’s efforts to bust a union at a Windsor Wal-Mart a decade ago. The charges detail a paper trail leading back to the office of then Ontario Premier Mike Harris. The charges also reveal Wal-Mart’s latest efforts to thwart a more recent organizing drive at the same Windsor store leading up to a certification vote being held at the Windsor store today. The unfair labour practice charges were filed Monday by UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada). According to UFCW Canada’s national director, Michael J. Fraser, “Wal-Mart was up to dirty tricks in Windsor a decade ago and they’re up to them again.” In 1997 the OLRB certified a union bargaining unit at a Wal-Mart store on Tecumseh Road East in Windsor, Ontario after the board determined that Wal-Mart had intimidated workers during an organizing drive at the store. Soon after the Tory government of Mike Harris changed the Ontario Labour Relations Act and stripped the OLRB of its power to automatically certify a union in the wake of employer intimidation. An anti-union petition campaign eventually led to the Windsor store being decertified. “The charges,” said Fraser, “include evidence from Wal-Mart workers who led the anti-union movement back then that they received equipment, charge accounts and money to run their campaign. They also received airfare, and accommodations, and $500 each for reimbursement of meals of less than $100, all paid for by the Premier’s office for appearing with Mike Harris the day he announced his changes to the labour act.” “Some of those employees are still working at the store,” says Fraser, ”and they have given evidence that the man who was the secret operative between them and Wal-Mart a decade ago has recently resurfaced and is behind a new campaign to make sure today’s vote at the Windsor store fails.” “We hope Wal-Mart’s tactics don’t influence the vote,” says Fraser, “including their recent announcement to shut a store in Jonquière just after the employees unionized. We’ve also included that action as an unfair labour practice in our filing because what Wal-Mart did in Jonquière was meant to frighten Wal-Mart workers everywhere about what could happen to them if they voted for a union.” Today’s Windsor vote is being held at the store and is being conducted by the OLRB. Voting ends at 9:30 p.m. For more information contact: Michael Forman, UFCW Canada Communications 416-579-8330 [email protected]

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