Wal-Mart evil union buster?

The news all weekend has been about the Wal-Mart’s decision to close its first unionized store in North America.

The decision was immediately decried as union-busting by an evil US corporate giant. The union is filing suit against the company for “bad faith bargaining and unfair labour practices”. Bernard Landry called for a boycott of non-unionized Wal-Marts. Two Wal-Mart stores even received bomb threats.

Amidst all the hoopla, one fact is being lost in the shuffle: Wal-Mart tried to negotiate with the union for 4 months before making the decision to close:

Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier said that anyone who assumes the decision was made as an attempt to bust the union “doesn’t understand what went on over the past few months. “This store could easily have closed months ago and we didn’t do that. We made a determination we were going to bargain in good faith.”

[ . . . ]

Pelletier said the company and the union had been trying since last October to reach a collective agreement that would allow the store to continue operating.

If Wal-Mart was simply trying to bust unions, they would have closed in October, instead of spending months trying to negotiate. In all that time, however, the union didn’t budge an inch, making it patently obvious that the union’s negotiators weren’t looking for a workable settlement; instead, they were trying to make a political point.

Unfortunately, this is the situation with far too many union negotiations. Workers in unionized environments may want to collaborate with management for the good of everyone, but are barred from doing so by politically-motivated union leaders who love media attention more than they care about their members.

But of course, this is lost on Sue Montgomery, who wants to start a campaign to kick all of Wal-Mart out of Canada:

I propose a movement to run all Wal-Marts out of the province and, eventually, out of the country. They’re a blight on our communities, squeezing out local business, bullying workers, and globally, pulling wages down to the lowest common denominator.

Here’s a thought: people like paying less for stuff. Why do you think Wal-Mart has grown by leaps and bounds? I wonder if Sue Montgomery really thinks that her column will stir the masses to abandon Wal-Mart and instead buy inferior products at higher prices to show solidarity with the unions? Yeah right.

To quote Terry and Ted on CHOM this morning, “I wonder what colour her sky is”?