Wal-Mart fires back at Vegas union organizers

Grace Leong

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 | 10:42 a.m.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the target of a nationwide organizing drive by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and accused of blocking its workers' right to vote, is accusing the union of selectively handpicking its supporters in its first request for a store-wide election in Las Vegas.

The national organizing drive by UFCW Local 711, which was launched in Las Vegas in October, picked up pace with its first election request on Sept. 19 for a 180-worker Wal-Mart's Sam's Club store at 7175 W. Spring Mountain Road and the filing by a federal agency of labor law complaints against the nation's largest retailer.

The UFCW, which has a membership of about 8,000 members in the Las Vegas area, said it is trying to organize some 8,000 workers in 14 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the Las Vegas Valley. It will meet with the retailer and the National Labor Relations Board on Oct. 3 to determine the election date and the composition of the proposed bargaining unit, or group of workers to be represented.

Winning an election in Las Vegas, where unions have high visibility, would lend support to the UFCW's efforts to ultimately target more than 962,000 Wal-Mart workers nationwide, whom it claims are paid at least 34 percent less than workers at unionized food store chains and it charges have been hurt by the company's health benefit package and working conditions.

While the UFCW accused Wal-Mart of dramatically beefing up its union-busting activities in Las Vegas, the retailer cast doubts on the union's promises of fair representation and said the union had a habit of halting elections when support dwindled.

Jessica Moser, Wal-Mart's spokeswoman, disputed UFCW's claims of majority support at the Sam's Club store.

"The UFCW specified in their election petition that they won't represent certain groups including pharmacists and opticians. While Wal-Mart had asked NLRB to exclude supervisors from the vote, any and everyone that isn't a supervisor should be allowed to vote."

The union, in its election petition, requested that all check-out supervisors, pharmacy and optical employees, office clerical, audit and loss prevention workers, accounting, team leaders, area and assistant managers, co- and general managers be excluded. The union said employers allegedly want such groups to be excluded and that federal laws prohibit such employees from voting.

But Moser disagreed.

"That's 30 percent out of the store that UFCW doesn't want participating in the election. They're being selective because they don't have the total support at the store."

Mike Chavez, the National Labor Relations Board's resident officer in Las Vegas, said: "The union could want these groups excluded because they have no community of interest, meaning there's no daily interaction between the excluded groups and those workers the UFCW want to represent. But Wal-Mart could give lots of evidence at the hearing that show pharmacists, for example, do interact a lot with the employees that UFCW want to represent."

The union wants to represent all hourly workers including cashiers, merchandisers, sales, meat and fresh department workers, demonstrators, greeters, maintenance and cart workers.

Wal-Mart also cast doubt on whether UFCW's election request in Las Vegas would succeed. It said UFCW leaders have now blocked or withdrawn from five elections involving small groups of Wal-Mart workers, suggesting a pattern in which the union begins a drive, realizes it lacks support and then blocks or withdraws from the election rather than face defeat.

Wal-Mart said the UFCW blocked a scheduled April 26 vote by 19 Tire and Lube Express Wal-Mart workers in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

"The UFCW has been working to organize Wal-Mart workers for years, which begs the question why they would not go forward with an opportunity to hold an election in a Wal-Mart store," said Charlyn Jarrells Porter, senior vice president. "The conclusion is clear: They knew they were going to lose."

But Al Zack, assistant director of strategic programs of the UFCW International union in Washington, said the NLRB held up elections at Wal-Mart stores in Lake Elsinore because of severe labor law violations by the retailer.

The NLRB issued a complaint on Sept. 20 against 36 management personnel at three Las Vegas Wal-Mart stores at 3615 S. Rainbow Blvd., 3075 E. Tropicana Ave. and 1807 W. Craig Road.

The suit said workers who showed union support were disparaged and told they weren't worthy of working at Wal-Mart or invited to quit. Workers were threatened with a loss of benefits if they showed union support and were allegedly prohibited from soliciting for the union at other workers' homes or distributing union literature.

Wal-Mart was accused of denying requests from employees, who were being questioned by their managers, to have another employee as a witness during the alleged interrogation.

The union also accused Wal-Mart of causing a healthcare provider of a worker, Norine Sorensen, to refuse to grant her a full medical release to stop her from returning to work. Sorensen was on a mandatory leave of absence and could not return to work without that release.

Moser disagreed.

"These are the same charges they have filed across the country as they have tried to organize our stores in the past. What's important to note is the NLRB has continually dismissed these charges or caused the union to withdraw them."

A hearing is scheduled on Jan. 15, 2002.

A complaint was also filed on Sept. 21 against 23 managers at three Las Vegas-area Sam's Club stores at 5101 S. Pecos Road, 7175 Spring Mountain Road and 1910 East Serene Ave.

The managers were accused of threatening to fire workers who supported the union, offering higher wages to those who refrained from participating in union activities, prohibiting workers from wearing union insignia on their name badges and and confiscating pens that bore such insignia. Several workers allegedly received unwarranted disciplinary warnings for their union activities. A hearing is scheduled on Feb. 12, 2002.