Wal-Mart is the largest private sector employer in the world, with 1.4 million workers. In Canada, Wal-Mart has about 230 stores and employs more than 60,000 people. Wal-Mart workers fighting for a union say they receive low wages, often work short hours, and are subject to intimidation.

Company spokesperson Andrew Pelletier told the New York-based Bloomberg news service that the company is considering an appeal to the Quebec Labour Relations Board, charging the decision was “undemocratic” because it was not made by secret ballot. “This concerns us because we believe that the only way to ensure associates can express their views without coercion or intimidation is by allowing a secret ballot,” he said. Wal-Mart management refers to workers in their stores as “associates.”

According to Quebec labor law, a majority of workers signing union cards is sufficient for union certification. Michael Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, said in a statement that the retail giant wants a secret ballot “so that the company can intimidate their employees to vote against the union.”

In August, the UFCW was certified at a Wal-Mart in Jonquière, north of Quebec City—the first company store to be unionized in North America. Negotiations have since then been under way for a contract. At the end of November, the company demanded the appointment of a government mediator after only two days of negotiations.

Workers at the Wal-Mart store in Brossard, a Montreal suburb, also applied for union representation last July. In September, the Labour Board ordered Wal-Mart to stop interfering with the unionization of workers at that facility.

“The employer went so far as prohibiting a militant from soliciting workers at work or even at her home,” Yvon Bellemare, president of UFCW Local 501, told the Montreal daily La Presse.

The UFCW says applications for union recognition are pending at 12 Wal-Mart locations in Quebec, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.  
 
 
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