More than a decade after its failed attempt to organize the Flin Flon Walmart store, one of Manitoba’s largest unions isn’t going away.
But nor is United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832 pursuing unionization with the same vigor as when Walmart was still new to the community’s retail landscape.
“One of the things that we learned, in the lessons of a decade ago or more, was that simply wanting to organize an employer doesn’t work unless the employees are keen to be organized and to see a better way,” says Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW.
While Traeger says UFCW would have “no qualms” about attempting unionization at the Flin Flon store, the first step must be a show of interest from employees.
By all accounts, that interest has never been significant.
When UFCW first tried to unionize the Flin Flon Walmart in 2003 and 2004, Traeger says, 30 to 35 per cent of workers signed union cards.
That wasn’t quite enough to meet the 40 per cent threshold required for a store-wide vote on whether to invite UFCW in.
“We actually spoke to everybody except what we call the ‘hard no’s,’” says Traeger. “The hard no’s are people that have told us when we first see them, or they’ve told their coworkers, that they’re absolutely not interested and they don’t want to talk to the union. So we talked to everybody who wasn’t one of those and ended up with less than 40 per cent.”
For UFCW, even reaching every store employee was something of a coup.
“We have no right of access to any information, so I don’t know where all the Walmart employees [live], what their phone numbers are…or any of those types of things,” Traeger says.
“We’re not allowed to contact [employees] on the employer’s property. That’s restricted by law, so what we have to do is [go] by word of mouth or from person to person, go door to door or coffee shop to coffee shop and start talking to people about signing a union card.”
In addition to Flin Flon, UFCW suffered another northern Manitoba defeat in June 2004 when Walmart employees in Thompson voted for the second time against a union.
Since then, UFCW has at times distributed leaflets to inform Walmart workers in Flin Flon, and across Manitoba, that if they are interested in a union, there is an option.
The leaflets, most recently distributed about three years ago, generated some curiosity from workers in Winnipeg, but none from either Flin Flon or Thompson.
Traeger says any effort to organize a store starts with an “inside committee” of three or four people interested in organizing and helping the union communicate with the workforce.
“So until we have an opportunity like that, I could put all kinds of resources in and try to organize the Flin Flon Walmart,” he says, “but without the help of people that are prepared to assist us…it’s a bit fruitless.”
While Traeger portrays his union as the path to a better life for Walmart workers, there are questions around the accuracy of that claim.
In 2010, workers at Canada’s only unionized Walmart, in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, voted overwhelmingly to decertify their union.
The vote came after Walmart and Saskatchewan’s UFCW Local 1400 failed to reach a single collective bargaining agreement, according to CBC.
Walmart Canada has also received numerous employer awards over the years.
In 2012, for instance, Waterstone Human Capital Inc. included the retail giant on its list of Canada’s 10 most admired corporate cultures.
And on at least three occasions, the Workplace Institute has ranked Walmart as one of the best employers for Canadians aged 50 and up.
The Reminder sought comment from Walmart’s corporate office, but two days later an email had not been returned.
