Retail - ASDA/Wal-Mart under attack
WORKERS, JULY 2006 ISSUE
THE 4300 GMB members employed by ASDA are moving closer to action after a 3 to 1 vote for strikes at depots and distribution centres across Britain as ASDA continues to refuse recognition and negotiating rights. As Workers went to press, the Shop Stewards National Council, meeting in Manchester, set the first strike days for 30 June to 4 July.
The GMB successfully took ASDA to an Employment Tribunal in February 2006, costing ASDA £850,000 in fines for anti-union activity. Similar legal action is planned under 2004 legislation, which makes it illegal for an employer to hire agency staff to undermine industrial action.
The union is monitoring the agency staff that ASDA is employing in the run up to the strike. If it acts illegally again, ASDA and the agencies would face punitive fines and official investigations.
Wal-Mart, the giant US retailer and ASDA's parent company, is facing protests and opposition elsewhere in the world. Attempts to unionise Wal-Mart in the USA and Canada have been brutally refused by Wal-Mart, leading the Norwegian government to withdraw investing its £130 billion pension fund in Wal-Mart for "serious and systematic violations of human rights and labour rights".
These included employing minors, breaching international labour conventions, hostility to unions, hazardous health and safety working conditions, enforced overtime and discriminatory working practices especially against women. Wal-Mart's share price subsequently fell.