The Weyburn Wal-Mart store has been certified for representation by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Local 1400, in a ruling by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeals released on October 14.
Andrew Pelletier, vice-president of corporate affairs and sustainability for Wal-Mart Canada said that they are reviewing the decision and will continue to take things "one step at a time," despite their disappointment with the ruling.
"We are disappointed this decision overturned the previous decision because we were hoping that the associates in the Weyburn store were going to be given a chance to vote on whether they wanted to be represented by the UFCW union or not," said Pelletier. "It looks like they won't be given the chance to vote.
Pelletier pointed out that of approximately 140 employees at the Weyburn store, only nine remain from two years ago when UFCW applied to unionize the store.
Hearings on the certification of the Weyburn store by UFCW have been conducted by the Labour Relations Board since December 2004. The UFCW had won that certification in 2008, however, Wal-Mart appealed the decision. The appeal then went to the Court of Queen's Bench and was granted in June.
The UFCW appealed this decision, in turn, forcing the issue back into court and won.
