Wal-Mart spokesperson Jessica Moser argued that the ruling "by no means gives the unions a free pass to trespass in our stores," and threatened to seek temporary injunctions against unionists recruiting on store property.

The owners of the retail giant, which employs more than 1 million people and operates close to 3,500 stores internationally, have maintained a notoriously antiunion stance. The bosses were set back, however, in a couple of recent organizing efforts at Wal-Mart stores. In February, meat cutters at its Jacksonville, Texas, store voted 7-3 for UFCW representation. Meat workers in a store in Palestine, Texas, held a union representation election in April. An outlet in Windsor in Ontario, Canada, became the first to be unionized in 1996. After a three-year campaign the company managed to have the union decertified.  
 
 
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