Company wants certification by secret ballot
After four years of legal challenges, Wal-Mart will see workers at its store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan represented by a union. The United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1400, sought certification for workers at the store when over 50 per cent signed union cards in 2004. The company launched a series of legal challenges including two appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada, which, in April 2007, declined to hear the second appeal, thereby leaving the way open for certification.
Changes in the make-up of the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB) delayed the process, but on December 8, the original panel of the Board ruled that the store’s employees, who numbered 85 at the time of the union drive, could be certified.
Company vice president Andrew Pelletier said the ruling would be appealed, as the Trade Union Act had been changed in 2008 to require a certification vote by secret ballot, not a majority of union cards. Also he argued that only 29 of the store’s 104 associates were still on staff from the time when the union first submitted its certification application on April 19, 2004.
The SLRB is also considering applications for union representation at Wal-Marts in North Battleford and Moose Jaw. After certification, the parties have 20 days to begin contract negotiations and 90 days to conclude an agreement under the province’s Trade Union Act.
