Ontario | Walmart warehouse workers set to unionize

(Toronto) Walmart workers at a Mississauga, Ont., warehouse have cleared a key hurdle in their fight to become the retailer’s first unionized warehouse in Canada.

Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, announced Friday that a majority of the 800 workers at the site west of Toronto voted to unionize earlier in the week.

The vote must still be certified by the Ontario Labour Relations Board before workers can elect a bargaining committee and seek a collective agreement.

Walmart Canada is considering its next steps, company spokeswoman Stephanie Fusco said in an email. The retail giant has the ability to challenge the certification, a move the Unifor president had expected.

“They employ a lot of lawyers, so I’m sure they’re all thinking about what they can do here right now because this is a pretty significant win,” Lana Payne said in an interview.

She and Unifor have recently spent much of their time in the retail sector, where the number of warehouse workers and couriers has continued to increase with the growth of e-commerce and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of these employees have long complained of harsh working conditions, a lack of benefits and poor pay compared to the gargantuan profits their employers make.

M^me Payne said workers at the Walmart distribution centre in Mississauga have been trying to organize since December to improve their health and safety, schedules, vacation time and wages.

“Companies like Walmart are making a lot of money and workers are basically saying, ‘We just want our fair share here,’” M said.^me Payne.

M^me Fusco said Walmart’s culture is built on “transparency, honesty and direct dialogue with our associates, without involving people outside our organization who don’t know our culture or our company.”

What M^me What Payne heard from Walmart workers, however, is similar to the refrain of union organizing campaigns Unifor has participated in recent years at Amazon warehouses as well as Starbucks and Indigo Books & Music stores.

Many of these companies have fought unionization drives fiercely.

M^me Payne expects the vote at the Mississauga warehouse will inspire staff at the retailer’s other locations as well as workers in similar positions at other companies to sign union cards.