Wal-Mart Seeks to Close Unionized Store

New York City, ACanadian Wal-Mart in Jonquiere, Quebec, has been marked for closure because the retail giant believes demands from the store’s union negotiators would make business too difficult. According to the Associated Press, the retailer said it had previously considered the store a poor performer and had discussed closing it last year. The chain now hopes close the store in May.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, attacked the closure decision as a response to union activity. “Wal-Mart has fired these workers not because the store was losing money but because the workers exercised their right to join a union,” Michael J. Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, said in a statement.

Last September, Canada’s provincial labor officials certified the store as a bargaining unit, making it the first unionized Wal-Mart store in North America. The union did not, however, have a contract with management.