*Weyburn Wal-Mart workers unionize*
By Bruce Johnstone, Leader-Post
December 9, 2008 10:00 PM

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has been certified to represent about workers at the Wal-Mart in Weyburn.

REGINA -- After more than four years of legal wrangling, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has finally been certified to represent about 85 workers at the Wal-Mart store in Weyburn.

The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB) issued a 71-page ruling Monday granting the UFCW the right to bargain on behalf of the Wal-Mart employees.

Paul Meinema, president of UFCW Local 1400, which represents the Weyburn Wal-Mart workers, said the decision has been a long time coming. “We applied (to the SLRB) on April 19, 2004,’’ Meinema said.

But an official with Wal-Mart Canada said the company intends to challenge the decision based on changes to the Trade Union Act and the board itself since the election of the Saskatchewan Party government in November 2007.

“We’re disappointed that our associates in Weyburn have not been given a chance to vote on whether or not their store would become unionized,’’
said Andrew Pelletier, vice-president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Canada.

“As a result, we expect to seek reconsideration of this decision to certify this store without a vote,’’ Pelletier said.

Meinema said the ruling is consistent with the pre-2008 Trade Union Act, which required 50 per cent of the employees, plus one, to sign union cards to certify a bargaining unit.

The SLRB also ruled that UFCW Local 1400 “represents a majority of employees in the appropriate unit,’’ which includes all employees of Wal-Mart in Weyburn, except department managers and above, pharmacy employees and office staff.

But Pelletier said the SLRB decision “excludes 17 hourly associates from the bargaining unit. The jobs of these 17 associates have been included in previous bargaining units determined by Canadian labour boards, which calls into question their exclusion from the (Weyburn) bargaining unit.”

He also noted that only 29 of the original 85 employees who signed union cards are still with the company.

Pelletier added that the SLRB decision should be reconsidered in light of the changes made to the Trade Union Act requiring certification votes and the replacement of the SLRB members, who made the decision.

“The individual who rendered this decision is somebody who had been cancelled as the chair of the previous labour board early in the year, many, many months ago. That is something that also raises a question with respect to the decision.’’

The decision was handed down by the previous SLRB chair James Seibel, who was replaced earlier this year by the Saskatchewan Party government.

Under the Trade Union Act, following certification, the parties have 20 days to begin contract negotiations and 90 days to conclude a collective agreement. Failing that, the SLRB could intervene to ask a third-party to help with negotiations or seek proposals from both sides to develop a first contract.

The legal battle between UFCW and Wal-Mart has been fraught with delays and appeals. After 19 months of hearings before the SLRB, Wal-Mart sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada twice and were denied.

Employees at three of the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer’s locations in Quebec are already represented by the union. Applications for unionization of two others in Saskatchewan are before the labour board.