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May 1, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Walmart raises suspicions after closing 5 stores for ‘plumbing’ problems
Walmart once again stands ac-
cused of the most extreme meas-
ures to squash its workers union
rights. On April 13, it announced
the sudden and extended closure
of five stores— on the pretext of
a sudden national plumbing
emergency.
The closures put 2,200 em-
ployees out of work—notably
including 530 at the Pico Rivera,
California store, the first Wal-
mart store in the United States to
take part in strike activity. Since
that October 2012 strike, the
Pico Rivera store, east of Los
Angeles, has been a “hotbed” for
labor activity, says United Food
and Commercial Workers
(UFCW). Workers there have
participated in strikes, civil dis-
obedience, and delegations that
have spoken to Walmart workers
elsewhere.
Now, the Pico Rivera store
will be closed six to 12 months,
Walmart says, along with stores
in Midland and Livingston,
Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and
Brandon, Florida. And incredi-
bly, Walmart cites plumbing
problems as the reason for the
closures, though without show-
ing any evidence.
What kind of plumbing prob-
lems could have caused the
complete closure of five stores
overnight? The Pico Rivera store
was built just 13 years ago, ren-
ovated eight years ago to be-
come a Supercenter, and again
renovated just last year. The
Midland, Texas store—one of
the busiest in the country—just
had 70 plumbing fixtures re-
placed three years ago, and
stayed open during the work, as
you’d expect.
Walmart corporate officials
visited each location, called a
meeting, and told employees
that the stores would be closing
that evening. Stores stocked with
perishables were closed with just
hours notice. And the layoffs
were so sudden that under fed-
eral law the company is on the
hook for two months of pay for
the laid-off workers. And yet,
two weeks after the closures, the
company hadn’t applied for a
single plumbing construction
permit at any of the five jurisdic-
tions. That’s because it still is as-
sessing what needs to be done, a
Walmart spokesman told the As-
sociated Press.
To believe that, you’d have to
think the world’s biggest com-
pany can’t get contractors to fix
plumbing while stores stay open
or get the job done in less than
half a year, and that the company
would close five stores for two
weeks before figuring out what
work needed to be done.
Or, you could conclude, as
UFCW did, that the closure was
meant to punish the Pico Rivera
workers and hide it by firing
1,700 other workers at four other
Citing political hostility, Machinists cancel Boeing vote
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.
(PAI)—Citing toxic political
hostility and threats of violence
against their organizers, the Ma-
chinists Union reluctantly with-
drew its petition for a union
recognition election at the Boe-
ing 787 Dreamliner plant here.
The National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) had scheduled
the vote for April 22, on a peti-
tion filed March 16. The elec-
tion will be postponed for at
least six months, the union said.
Boeing organizers had made
home visits to more than 1,700
workers, out of some 3,000 eli-
gible voters at the plant. They
launched the organizing drive af-
ter Boeing workers there
reached out to the union—
which represents tens of thou-
sands of Boeing workers in the
Pacific Northwest and in Kansas
—over issues such as forced
overtime, rising health care costs
and lack of respect on the job.
“After speaking with Boeing
workers who we were previ-
ously unable to reach, we’ve de-
termined now is not the right
time for an election,” said lead
organizer Mike Evans. “An at-
mosphere of threats, harassment
and unprecedented political in-
terference has intimidated work-
ers to the point we don’t believe
a free and fair election is possi-
ble.”
The interference and the dan-
ger—including two organizers
threatened at gunpoint and other
near-violent confrontations—
resulted in the Machinists filing
unfair labor practices com-
plaints against Boeing.
“The right to organize is a
legally protected civil right and
no one who chooses to exercise
that right in North Charleston
should fear for their life or
safety,” said Evans. “I hold
Boeing, South Carolina gover-
nor Nikki Haley, and their surro-
gates responsible for creating an
atmosphere of state-sanctioned
hostility toward unions and
union organizers.”
stores. It’s not the first time the
company has applied scorched
earth tactics when a union made
headway. In 2000, after 10 meat
cutters at a supercenter in Jack-
sonville, Texas, voted to join
UFCW Local 540, the company
closed meat-cutting operations
in 180 stores and switched to
prepackaged meats. In 2004,
workers at a Walmart store in
Jonquière, Quebec, became the
first full store in North America
to unionize. The following year,
Walmart closed the store, laying
off close to 200 workers. Last
June, the Canadian Supreme
Court ruled that the closure vio-
lated labor laws.
On April 20, charges were
filed with the National Labor
Relations Board, calling for an
injunction to compel Walmart to
rehire all of the workers who
were terminated in all five stores
and reinstate them to their own
stores or transfer them until they
can be reinstated to their stores.