Riunione internazionale di lavoratori Parmalat

Inserito nel sito UITA il 01-Nov-2003





Wal-Mart, the giant global retailer based in the USA, has repeatedly stated that it will not bargain with any union, and has repeatedly taken drastic steps to prevent workers from organizing in stores across North America.

Wal-Mart stores routinely violate the legal rights of their employees that try to organize into a labour union. Until now the maximum penalty Wal-Mart has incurred by its illegal conduct has been a requirement to post notices in various stores that it will no longer threaten employees who engage in "concerted activity", deny their right to organize, require employees to report their contacts with unions, or discipline or fire workers who engage in concerted activity.

For the first time however an administrative law judge has issued a bargaining order against Wal-Mart, requiring it to bargain with a local of the United Food & Commercial Workers' Union at a Texas store.

When meat cutters at the Wal-Mart voted for United Food and Commercial Workers representation, the company refused to recognize the union. It quickly changed how the Jacksonville store's meat department operated, making the meat cutters into "sales associates." The meat cutters' specialized skills were devalued once their work assignments were changed.

The sudden switch to case-ready meat became evidence of the scope of Wal-Mart's anti-union strategy. Wal-Mart even boasted to its managers in a Powerpoint presentation, "It's the ultimate union avoidance strategy!" Wal-Mart did the same thing when meat cutters at another Texas store voted a month later to join the UFCW.

Wal-Mart believed it had successfully circumvented the UFCW's first organizing victory at one of its stores � until a National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge ordered the company to recognize and bargain with Local 540 over the effects of the change to pre-packaged meat. This order comes more than three years after the original union election.

The UFCW has pledged to continue its ongoing campaign to win the rights of Wal-Mart employees to have a voice in the workplace.

For more information on this campaign, visit the UFCW web-site.