Last November, nine of the 17 employees in the department signed union cards to petition the labor board for an election for representation by Local 7 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

After a fact-finding hearing in December, NLRB regional director Allan Benson ruled that the 17 workers at Tire and Lube Express function separately from other workers at the Wal-Mart store and therefore comprise an appropriate bargaining unit. An election is expected to be held in late February.

Spokespersons for the retail giant told the Denver Post that they will appeal the decision.

“With approximately 400 associates in the building, we feel that more than a handful of associates should be able to have a say on such an important matter,” said Wal-Mart spokesperson Christi Gallagher. Associate is the term used by Wal-Mart to refer to its employees. Wal-Mart is the largest private sector employer in the world, with 1.4 million workers, and has long battled to keep unions out of its stores. The company has already held three anti-union employee meetings since the workers at the tire shop filed their petition, the Rocky Mountain News reported. “I’ll tell you straight, I earn $8 an hour. I can’t even afford their benefits,” tire shop worker Alicia Sylvia told the Rocky Mountain News in December. “I work for a living, and you know what? I have my kids on Medicaid.”

Union officials and supporters of the organizing effort at Tire and Lube Express said the NLRB decision is an important victory for the union. “It gives us a foot in the door,” said UFCW spokesperson Dave Minshall.

For years the company has repeatedly attempted to block unionizing efforts by intimidating workers through firings of union supporters and threats to take away benefits if the workers unionized.

In 2000, after meat cutters at a Wal-Mart store in Jacksonville, Texas, won UFCW representation, the company retaliated by eliminating that job category company-wide and selling only pre-packaged meat in its stores. On another occasion, two years later, according to the Rocky Mountain News, the union cancelled a representation vote at a tire shop at a Wal-Mart store in Dubuque, Iowa. It charged the company had intimidated workers into changing their minds.

Workers have won union representation by the UFCW at two Wal-Mart stores in Quebec, Canada. The UFCW says applications for union recognition are pending at 12 Wal-Mart locations in Canada.  
 
 
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