Wal-Mart shuts center set to unionize

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., known for its strong stance against workers unionizing, on Thursday closed a tire and lube center in Canada where workers had voted to organize.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the five workers and one manager at the center were offered jobs at comparable Wal-Mart facilities or elsewhere in the store, which is in Gatineau and has more than 250 workers. The store itself will remain open.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union called the closure an attack on Wal-Mart workers. Wal-Mart in 2005 closed a store in Jonquiere, Canada, after workers there agreed to unionize. The union has a Canada Supreme Court case pending over whether those workers’ rights were violated.

Wayne Hanley, president of UFCW Canada, said the closing violated workers’ rights.

“Wal-Mart thinks a cheap oil change is more important than the Canadian constitution,” Hanley said.

Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier said the contract that was imposed on Wal-Mart in August would have raised costs too much.