Walmart Unionizes in Saskatchewan Neither the Canadian retail sector nor industry giant Walmart are known for being high

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Walmart Unionizes in Saskatchewan Neither the Canadian retailsector nor industry giant Walmart are known for being highlyunionized. Yet in December 2010, after a six-year dispute betweenthe retailer and the United Food and Commercial Workers union(UFCW), the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal reaffirmed that theWalmart store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, was unionized. The store isthe only unionized Walmart location in western Canada. However, theunion has other union certification applications in process for twoother Saskatchewan locations, North Battleford and Moose Jaw. Theprocess to gain union recognition was a long one for the UFCW andthe Walmart employees. While the Saskatchewan Labour RelationsBoard received the certification application in 2004, the retailerhad challenged the application at several venues, including theLabour Relations Board, the court system, and even two SupremeCourt of Canada bids. In December of 2008, the Saskatchewan LabourRelations Board released its decision and certified the union.Still, the certification remained unsettled. In June 2009,following an appeal from the firm, a judge ordered that thecertification order be sent back to the Saskatchewan LabourRelations Board. The rationale for this ruling was that the 2008amendment to the province’s Trade Union Act required a mandatoryvote (as opposed to a card-based, automatic certification) for allunion certification applications. For this reason, the judge feltthat Walmart employees had to vote on the issue of unionrepresentation, and meet the thresholds set by the revised labourlegislation, before a certification could be ordered. Simply put,the card evidence used when the union applied for certification,prior to the revised legislation requiring a vote, was deemedinsufficient to grant certification. This decision was overturnedby the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in October of 2010. The storeis now officially unionized and the union hopes to startnegotiations shortly. Sources: CBC News, “Union certified atWal-Mart store in Saskatchewan,” 9 December 2008, retrieved 29January 2011 fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/20 ... -mart.html; CBC News, “Sask. judge overturns Wal-Mart unioncertification,” 24 June 2009, retrieved 29 January 2011 fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/20 ... -mart.html; “Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upholds union bid atWeyburn Walmart,” Regina Leader-Post, 15 October 2010, retrieved 29January 2011 from http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Sask ... story.html
Questions 1. Let’s assume that you are the HRM manager of theWalmart store in Weyburn that just unionized. You need to brief themanagement team on the changes they will face as a result ofunionization
. a. What would you inform them are the key changes they canexpect to see in terms of management and HRM practices?
b. The managers will likely be concerned about efficiency. Howwould you advise that they best ensure that productivity remainsthe same or improves?
c. If you were asked to predict levels of turnover in the newlyunionized store relative to the other nonunion retailers in thearea, what would you predict?
2. Employees, some of whom supported the union and some of whomdid not, may have many questions. Let’s assume that you and a UFCWrepresentative hold a joint meeting with the staff. What three orfour changes would you highlight as they move to a collectiveemployment relationship