New charges fly in LV labor battle

Grace Leong

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002 | 11:34 a.m.

More than 100 union supporters joined the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in a rally Tuesday at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Sam's Club store at 7175 W. Spring Mountain Road against an alleged campaign by the giant retailer to block its Las Vegas workers' right to vote on union representation.

A religious group, the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice, joined the union in accusing Wal-Mart and Sam's Club management of blocking their workers' right to organize and collectively bargain since the UFCW launched a national organizing drive, starting with some 8,000 workers in 14 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in Las Vegas in October 2000.

The Interfaith Council said it was "greatly concerned" about the employees' working conditions and offered to help monitor planned elections at the Spring Mountain Sam's Club.

The UFCW Local 711, which has a membership of about 8,000 people in the Las Vegas area, filed its first election request on Sept. 19 for the 230-worker Spring Mountain store. But a vote in November was postponed after the union brought unfair labor charges against Sam's Club on Nov. 27. The election hasn't been rescheduled yet because of a pending investigation of the new charges.

The UFCW, in its complaint, accused Sam's Club of polluting the "laboratory conditions" or conditions that enable a free and fair election to take place when it allegedly hired numerous workers to dilute "the union supporters' majority status" and solicited from workers letters requesting the union to withdraw its election petition.

The union also accused Sam's Club of "telling other workers that Sam's Club could not give regularly scheduled merit raises because the union filed the election petition" and of "promoting unit members into supervisory positions but not moving them into their new positions until after the election."

The UFCW said Sam's Club workers were told during store meetings they should not speak to union organizers and supporters because they would be risking their personal safety and were allegedly threatened with termination if they handbilled for the union.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jessica Moser disputed the allegations.

"The bottom line is our associates do not want to pay someone to represent them. This is clear by what the vast majority of our associates are saying and the UFCW's move to block the only election they could get in Las Vegas. Everyone knows that if the UFCW thought they could have won the election, they would have been in our club with bells on rather than taking steps to keep our associates from voting."

Bill Meyer, assistant to the director of strategic programs of the UFCW International Union in Washington, said Tuesday's rally was an attempt to alert the public of the alleged problems faced by Sam's Club workers who want union representation and to put pressure on Sam's Club to stop harrassing and intimidating these workers.

"We don't want attention to be taken away from the struggle the employees are undergoing," he said. "Why should corporate terrorism be allowed to reign when people want union membership?"

But Moser criticized Tuesday's rally as a ploy by the UFCW to "make people think they are gaining momentum when everyone knows they've been going nowhere for quite some time."

Sofia Fox, a merchandiser with Sam's Club for more than nine years, questioned the union's motives in holding the rally and motives for wanting to represent the giant retailer.

"Why is the union spending money and time on this rally when it should devote its resources to helping its union members who had lost jobs after (the) Sept. 11 (terrorist attacks)?" she asked. "Wal-Mart is a thriving business and we've done it without union support. ... If the union can get into Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, then it can recover dues lost over the years."

The Las Vegas Sun was referred to Fox by Moser.

Moser said Wal-Mart is now consulting its attorneys to determine what action to take after the UFCW ignored a letter Wal-Mart had allegedly sent warning the union it would be trespassing if it held its rally on the Sam's Club parking lot.

Moser, who said her main concern was making sure Sam's Club shoppers weren't bothered by the rally as they tried to shop, said several shoppers were temporarily blocked from getting their groceries to their cars when the union supporters took the rally from outside the parking lot to the main entrance of the Sam's Club store.

Separately, Wal-Mart's case was bolstered in recent weeks with Wal-Mart's designation by Fortune Magazine as one of the nation's 100 best companies to work.

Wal-Mart is valued by its employees for its "homey feel" despite facing a sex-discrimination suit and union organizing efforts, the magazine said in its Feb 4 issue. It ranked Wal-Mart No. 94 on the top 100 list for 2001, down from No. 80 in 2000.

Meanwhile, a hearing on a National Labor Relations Board complaint the NLRB filed on Sept. 21 against 23 managers at three Las Vegas-area Sam's Club stores that was scheduled to start Tuesday has been postponed. The NLRB said it plans to have a joint hearing of the Sept. 21 complaint and the new charges filed by the union but hasn't scheduled this hearing yet.

The NLRB, in its complaint, alleged the managers at Sam's Club Stores at 5101 S. Pecos Road, 7175 Spring Mountain Road and 1910 E. Serene Ave. threatened to fire workers who supported the union, offered higher wages to those who refrained from participating in union activities, prohibited workers from wearing union insignia on their name badges and confiscated pens that bore such insignia. Several workers allegedly received unwarranted disciplinary warnings for their union activity and some workers were allegedly illegally suspended after they allegedly insisted on their rights to have co-workers witness investigatory interviews.

The NLRB also filed an unfair labor practices complaint in September against more than 20 management personnel at three Las Vegas Wal-Mart stores. It's now in the midst of a trial on those charges that began Jan. 15.

Wal-Mart attorneys, in their opening statements on Jan. 16, accused the union of being more concerned about protecting its market share than of protecting workers' rights.