This is the second vote held by workers, who are standing up to the notoriously antiunion company and fighting for their rights and a union, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Their struggle has received national attention as symbolic of the growing labor resistance and for the hardball tactics pursued by the bosses. These include announcing after meat cutters at its Jacksonville, Texas, store voted 7-3 in favor of the union in February--the first successful union drive at a Wal-Mart--that it was abolishing meat cutting jobs and switching to case-ready prepackaged meat. Wal-Mart is also appealing that vote.

Union supporter Countee Woodard has worked as a meat cutter in the store for two years. "It's a good thing to have a union. We are looking for better working conditions, better insurance, and more money. Workers deserve this," he said after the vote. Woodard, who had been a member of the United Steelworkers of America for 27 years at the Houston Reynolds Can Company before it shut down in 1996, explained that 28 hours is considered a full-time job at Wal-Mart. Schedules are constantly changing, and insurance and other benefits are minimal.

But the counting of the ballots of the 15 workers was delayed due to a legal appeal by Wal-Mart that is contesting the right of the workers to even hold an election. The bosses claim that since they plan to get rid of the meat cutters in their stores, there is no need for a separate meat department with higher skilled jobs, and therefore no basis for the election. The ballot box was taken to the National Labor Relations Board's office in Ft. Worth.

The Palestine meat and seafood workers petitioned for the union election in the days leading up to the union victory in Jacksonville, 27 miles from here, as a way of supporting them.

Wal-Mart is the largest discount retailer in the world, employing more than 900,000 people, with revenues this last year of more than $165 billion and a net income of over $5.5 billion.

On the day of the Palestine Wal-Mart vote, three UFCW union officials and the husband of one of the workers waited outside until the end of the election at 2:30 p.m. They then went into the back where the ballot box was sealed, followed by six Wal-Mart bosses. That day the company had bosses walking around with walkie-talkies and standing at the entrance watching everyone coming and going.

The Saturday before the election Wal-mart held a pro-company rally, but only 11 people showed up, mainly bosses.

After the vote, Woodard said in a phone interview that he did not know what the outcome would be. Three votes had been challenged by the union and one by the company. The store had brought in six bosses from company headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. The atmosphere was tense for the last couple of months, Woodard noted. The company had pulled one pro-union worker out of the department and replaced him with the three whose votes were challenged.

Although there has been no official announcement when the votes will be counted, the company is planning to bring "dignitaries" into the store on April 20 to declare itself the winner against the workers in their bid for a union. The company's claims that it will rapidly change over to case-ready beef is dubious. According to the Wall St. Journal, only 5 percent of the beef sold in this country is case-ready, and more plants will have to be built with additional technology.

The Jacksonville vote shows that what is really involved is Wal-Mart's determination to not negotiate with the workers who voted in the union and threaten unionizing moves in other stores. Meat cutters in Ocala, Florida, and Abilene, Texas, have also petitioned the NLRB for union elections.

"Win or lose, I feel happy in what we did," said Woodard, who pointed out that the workers who backed the union had the support of different organizations in the community.

Lea Sherman is a meat packer in Houston.  
 
 
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