Militant reporters who visited Jonquière September 4 got a feel for the significance of this victory in interviews with Wal-Mart workers.

This is the only union local at this time that organizes all the workers at a Wal-Mart facility. Wal-Mart has 1.3 million employees worldwide, and 60,000 in Canada, earning an average of Can$8 (US$6.25) an hour.

Johanne Desbiens and Sylvie Lavoie have been working in this Wal-Mart since it opened in August 2000, when the workforce was about 250. Today there are 50 full-time workers out of a total workforce of 165, they said. The full-timers work only 28 hours a week. Part-time workers put in around 12 hours a week. “When we started working there we didn’t complain much, because Jonquière is not like Montreal,” explained Desbiens, referring to the fact that the Saguenay region has few jobs to offer. “We gave our 150 percent for Wal-Mart.”

“Our first motivation for the struggle is to fight injustice, and I would do it again anytime,” said Lavoie. “There was an injustice going on because there was no respect for seniority—newly hired workers earned more than the others.” The workers’ victory came out of two attempts to convince the majority of workers to sign cards for a union. The first time, in April, they fell eight votes short. Desbiens and Lavoie both explained that in the days prior to the April vote managers threatened the store would close if the union got in. Lavoie said they felt discouraged about the outcome, but co-workers kept coming back to them about continuing the fight to bring in a union.

Their second attempt began in June and on July 6 they turned in the signed cards. “This time we had more cards signed, enough so that even if the section managers were included in the vote we would still be the majority,” said Desbiens.

When she was hired, Lavoie said, the company paid her only $8 an hour because it recognised only 10 of her 20 years experience, and Desbiens received $7.80 for 5 years experience in sales, when in fact she had 10. Both are part-time workers. The two unionists said most of those working at this Wal-Mart are single mothers. Some, like Desbiens, are denied full-time posts. She thinks it is because of her union activity. Lavoie works as a customer service employee in the cashier department and Desbiens is a cashiers’ supervisor, which is really just someone who fills in for others, she said. Part-time workers like Lavoie and Desbiens work Thursday through Sunday—a difficult schedule for single mothers.

“It couldn’t be worse than that: no benefits, no insurance, nothing!” said Lavoie.

The most difficult part was not how to convince co-workers of the need for a union, but being able to talk to them. The two unionists said in the first union-organizing effort they got most of the cards signed in one evening, right under the boss’s nose at the company Christmas party. During the second attempt Wal-Mart didn’t notice that they were getting cards signed until they had almost finished.

Desbiens said the bosses tried to drive them out of the store. “They wanted to make us leave by not giving us postings. It’s really outrage that made us continue. The trick is to transform that into positive energy,” she said.

“After what we’ve accomplished we now get calls from other Wal-Mart workers on how can they can get a union in,” said Lavoie. “I think it’s going to be hard to get our first contract. Wal-Mart will not want to meet with us, and we won’t win much. But we are the first link in the chain.”

“What we deplore,” said Desbiens, “is that even though Andrew Pelletier, the Wal-Mart boss in Toronto, says he will accept the workers’ decision, by his threats and actions he proves the opposite. It means that Wal-Mart wants to attack the labor laws by not accepting the majority vote.”

In the next weeks and months contract negotiations are due to start.

Sébastien Desautels is a garment worker and member of UNITE HERE.  
 
 
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