The highest court in Saskatchewan has upheld a decision to certify a union at a Wal-Mart in Weyburn, Saskatchewan

Dear Editor;


The highest court in Saskatchewan has upheld a decision to certify a union at a Wal-Mart in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. In a unanimous decision the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the certification of United Food and Commercial Workers’ (UFCW) Canada Local 1400 bargaining unit at the Weyburn store. The certification had originally been issued by the Saskatchewan Labour Board in December 2008.

Wal-Mart had successfully challenged that certificate in a lower court but that court’s decision was struck down by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, and the union certification upheld. This is a victory for workers rights and the principle that no company is above the law.

It was the second time in a week the courts have ruled against Wal-Mart. Just two days prior to the Saskatchewan ruling, the Quebec Superior Court upheld an arbitrator’s decision that Wal-Mart had acted illegally when it shut a store in Jonquiere, Quebec shortly after workers there joined a union.

Meanwhile, UFCW Canada members at a Wal-Mart in Gatineau Quebec recently achieved a first contract. UFCW Canada members at a store in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec also have a contract in place.

In Saskatchewan, UFCW Canada Local 1400 also has applications pending before the labour board for Wal-Mart stores in Moose Jaw and North Battleford.

Seeing the workers in one of the largest, if the not the largest business in the world, able to access their rights to free collective bargaining is some of the best news the trade-union movement and workers in general could possibly receive. It tells the world that people are long past the point of accepting that their standard of living must be diminished while the unbridled greed associated with globalization and as many people refer to it, the Wal-Mart mentality, proceeds unchecked as business drills deeper and deeper into the poorest countries of the world to establish their outposts where no labour, environmental or health and safety regulations exist. In fact this very behavior exists within our own borders as globalization permits the use of sub contractors that have no access to any legislative protection.

If business had nothing to hide and was interested in looking after their workers they would not oppose unionization nor would they oppose the various forms of legislation that protects the lives and livelihoods of workers such as improvements to health and safety legislation, pension reform and legislation that prohibits the use of replacement workers (scabs) when workers exercise their right to withdraw their labour when the employer fails to offer a reasonable collective agreement.

Dave Trumble, President, Grey-Bruce Labour Council