Wal-Mart shuts its only unionized North American store

From the CCH WorkWeek newsletter:


Wal-Mart announced last week that it would close its Tire and Lube Express store in Gatineau, Quebec, months after the store's six employees formed a union and secured a court-imposed bargaining agreement under Canadian labor law. Wal-Mart said the closure was a result of the "unrealistic" contract, which it claimed would increase its operating costs by 30 percent. Quebec's labor federation charged that the closure was "a fresh assault by Wal-Mart against the elementary right to unionize," and claimed the court-imposed contract was in line with salary norms for such work. The Gatineau site was briefly noteworthy for being the only unionized Wal-Mart facility in North America. The retailer shut down another Wal-Mart store in Quebec in 2005 after 200 workers there had sought to organize.