Subject: Wal-Mart closes store as union's push gains

Associated Press

February 10, 2005

In the latest salvo in a long-running battle between Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

and organized labor, the company said Wednesday it will close a Canadian

store where about 200 workers are near winning the first-ever union contract

from the world's largest retailer.

Wal-Mart said it was shuttering the store in Jonquiere, Quebec, in response

to demands from union negotiators that it said would make it impossible for

the store to sustain its business.

The United Food & Commercial Workers Canada last week asked Quebec labor

officials to appoint a mediator, saying that negotiations had reached an

impasse.

"We were hoping it wouldn't come to this," said Andrew Pelletier, a

spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada. "Despite nine days of meetings over three

months, we've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our

view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably."

Union leaders promised to fight the move by the retailer, and rejected

Wal-Mart's stated reasons for closing the store.

"Wal-Mart has fired these workers not because the store was losing money but

because the workers exercised their right to join a union," Michael J.

Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, said in a written statement. "Once

again, Wal-Mart has decided it is above the law and that the only rules that

count are their rules."

Wal-Mart's decision to close the store reflects the retailer's deeply rooted

aversion to unions, and its worries that organized labor had nearly

established a beachhead, said Burt Flickinger III of Strategic Resource

Group, a consulting firm specializing in retailing and consumer goods.

But the move could backfire for a company that has worked hard recently to

portray itself as a generous employer, he said.