Feb
Oooohhh a boycott!!!
Wal-Mart Canada anticipates a union-supported boycott of its stores after it announced the closure of a unionized Quebec store, a spokesman with the retail giant said Thursday.
Unionized workers at the store in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, had been trying to negotiate a first contract with Wal-Mart when the company said Wednesday the store was closing for financial reasons.
An announcement of a boycott could come as early as Friday when the Quebec Federation of Labour, the province’s largest union, holds a news conference in Saguenay.
As a show of soidarity I will be shopping at Wal-Mart today. In fact I am going to try to shop there everyday for a while. I encourage all Meatriarchy readers to do the same.
I am doing this more out of my hatred for miliant socialist unions than I am for my love of Wal-Mart. Also because I am out of nyger seed for my bird feeders and Wal-Mart has the best price.
Update 1 :
More from Kevin Libin at The Shotgun:
As the Meatriarchy noted earlier, there was threat of a boycott. The unions, probably realizing that not even the most sympathetic Canadians would be willing to start frequenting Zellers instead, has backed off that idea. Still, others are prepared to ratchet up the anti-Wal-Mart gesturing—two Quebec stores had to be evacuated today after bomb threats were phoned in.
Update #2:
As promised I did stop by at Wal-Mart and bought some Nyger seed for my feeders. Also I picked up some hamburger buns. While I was at the checkout I decided to ask the young checkout girl what she thought of the Quebec situation:
Me: What do you think about that Quebec Wal-Mart?
Girl (looking perplexed): Are they opening a Wal-Mart in Quebec?
Me: No they already have them. This one formed a union but Wal-Mart is closing the store.
Girl: Oh I never heard about that.
Me: No one has been talking about it?
Girl: No, I haven’t heard anything.
Popularity: 5% [?]
February 11th, 2005 at 8:32 am
I”m not union, but I need some groceries. Think I’ll see how much of my hard-earned money I can spend at Wal-Mart today. Maybe I’ll see a union rep I can thumb my nose at on the way out.
February 11th, 2005 at 8:48 am
Anti-boycott
You may have heard about Wal-Mart’s current union troubles in Canada. They have decided to close a store in Quebec rather than being dictated to on how to run their business by a heavy-handed union.
Now, union groups are calling for a boycott of W…
February 11th, 2005 at 8:55 am
Thanks for the link Drew!
February 11th, 2005 at 9:52 am
What is stunning is that a union is effectively setting up a situation where it and its members can attempt to enforce a private company to set up a factory/business to provide them with salaries. I consider unions, in this day and age, to be, themselves, private corporations. They get their income from workers’ wages, with which they pay their administrative salaries. It’s a business, feeding off the work of the workers. And, it absolutely requires that those workers ‘work’ - otherwise, the union executives and administration lose their jobs!
Unions are not about worker’s needs or rights anymore; they are a secondary system, a virus, feeding off of others.
Wal-Mart is right to reject the union using it as a means for union-executive salaries.
February 11th, 2005 at 10:50 am
The UFCW is based in my town in upstate NY and they are a corupt bunch. They preach the union line and take a weekly cut of some spotty bag boy’s check and then they turn around and pay themselves hundreds of thousands of dollar a year as well as buy expensive cars and houses for themselves using some $7 an hour dollar clerks money.
A couple of years ago they sabotaged a charity raffle to benefit sick kids when they were trying to organize at a hospital locally. Obviously it was a public relations disaster for them.
They are nothing more Itai thugs.
February 11th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
We’ve lost two very important things over the past few decades; the art of cooking and the art of shopping. If you live in a large city, as I do, you’ll get much better deals and variety when you patronize small independant businesses. It’s also better for the economy. Wal-Mart is for people who’ve never learned to shop “from scratch”, people who’ve lost *consumer autonomy*. They are rushed and overtaxed and overworked and have allowed themselves to become dependant on just a few large retailers.
One other thing, Wal-Mart employees are instruced to check their individuality at the door. So they’ve got a vapid smiling “true-believer” workforce whose behavior reminds me of those old Soviet ‘Little Oktobrists’. The word “associate”, used to describe employees, is just too friggin’ socialist-collectivist for my tastes.
As for a union? Well, I think workers have the right to form free associations. As for the union these particular workers voted to join? They’re out of their cotton-pickin’ minds!!! Many Québec workers actually refer to their union reps as “second bosses”.
February 11th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
Shop Wal-Mart!
The Meatriarchy reports that Wal-Mart Canada is under a boycott threat due to its shutting down of a unionized store…
February 11th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Wow, looks like the threats are escalating quickly. From boycott to bombs in hours: Dual Bomb Threats Shut Down Wal-Mart Stores In Gatineau.