Province's union leaders should organize a more positive image By KONRAD YAKABUSKI, The Globe and Mail
Organizing Wal-Mart associates may be a question of survival for the UFCW. In a short period of time, the retailing behemoth has become the biggest grocer in the United States, driving down wages and working conditions at the unionized grocery chains that are the UFCW's mainstay.
Which is why the Jonquière attempt was but the first in a series of unionization drives Wal-Mart can expect at its Quebec stores -- in addition to the one already launched by the UFCW in North Battleford, Sask. A breakthrough north of the border would help the union south of it.
Before that happens, though, the Quebec union movement needs to work on its image. Hundreds of thousands of Quebeckers have seen how the union leaders of The Barbarian Invasions operate and it isn't pretty.