http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/business/worldbusiness/20walmart.html
NYTimes September 20, 2005
Quebec Rules Against Wal-Mart in Closing of Unionized Store
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA, Sept. 19 - Quebec's labor relations board has rejected Wal-Mart Canada's claim that it closed a unionized store in that province for economic reasons, saying instead that there was evidence the store might reopen.
In a decision released late last week, the board said that it did not find the April closing of the store in Jonquière to be "real, genuine and definitive" under the province's law. The decision makes it possible that the company could be fined and that compensation could be ordered for about 190 former employees.
The Canadian arm of Wal-Mart Stores has vigorously denied suggestions that the store's closing, an unusual act for the company, was related to the successful drive to organize its employees by the United Food and Commercial Workers-Canada. Rather, it said, the outlet was unprofitable.
The labor board's decision did not look at the store's financial results, however. The board said it heard evidence that Wal-Mart had made no real effort to find another tenant to assume its 20-year lease on the store and that the building had neither been sold nor demolished. That, the board said, indicated that the closing was not permanent, making the dismissal of its workers illegal under Quebec law.
"The company is still the tenant," Pierre Flageole, vice president of the Quebec Labor Board, wrote in the board's decision. "Every indication is the company has left the door open to resume the same business in the same space."
In the decision, the board said it would hold additional hearings on possible compensation for the employees, though it offered no details on what that might be. Normally, the Quebec labor board would order the company to return their employees to their old jobs and pay them retroactively.
While that is not possible in this case because of the store closing, the board could possibly order Wal-Mart to give the Jonquière workers positions at its nonunionized stores in nearby cities, said Adelle Blackett, a law professor at McGill University in Montreal. She added that the company could also face substantial fines.
"We will have to see how far the board is prepared to go," Professor Blackett said. "This is the kind of decision that sends a very powerful message about respecting the integrity of Quebec labor law."
Andrew Pelletier, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, said the company was surprised by the decision.
"Anybody connected to Jonquière knows how hard we tried to save the store," he said. "That store is not going to reopen."
Despite the board's finding, Mr. Pelletier said that Wal-Mart had been trying, without success, to find another retailer to take over the lease. "It's an economically marginalized region," he said of Jonquière. "So it has been challenging to find someone."
Wal-Mart will probably appeal once the final ruling is issued, Mr. Pelletier added.
The food and commercial workers union has been aiming organizing efforts at Wal-Mart stores in several parts of Canada, particularly Quebec.
The union local at the Jonquière store hoped to be the first in North America to negotiate a contract with Wal-Mart. Its closing, which was announced in February, seems to have chilled the organizing drive. Workers at Wal-Marts in Quebec and Ontario have since voted against certifying the union as their bargaining agent.
In one very modest victory for the union, eight workers in the tire shop of a Wal-Mart in Cranbrook, British Columbia, voted last week to organize, the union said. Wal-Mart is appealing that vote.
Louis Bolduc, the head of the union in Quebec, said the Jonquière decision would help organizing efforts.
"Wal-Mart will now think twice about closing another store," Mr. Bolduc said from Montreal. "And people will be less afraid of signing a union card."
