Union steps up efforts to organize at Wal-Marts

"The United Food and Commercial Workers union is ramping up organizing at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. after a five-year lull, dovetailing with its efforts to win support in Congress for a bill to make union organizing easier," Kris Maher and Ann Zimmerman report for The Wall Street Journal. "At this point, the union said it hasn't obtained majority support at any Wal-Mart stores, but has majorities in a handful of individual departments, which can be unionized separately."

Last we knew, most Wal-Marts were in rural areas. The story didn't reveal whether UFCW is focusing on urban and suburban areas, which might seem more union-friendly, but one of the two Wal-Mart workers quoted was an overnight stocker from rural Glendale, Ill., 30 miles north of Paducah, Ky. Linda Haluska told the Journal that Wal-Mart is "a good place to work, but it would be better with a union."

"Since February, Ms. Haluska said her store has held five or six meetings attended by managers from the Wal-Mart corporate office to discuss unionization. Ms. Haluska and other workers said the meetings are aimed at dissuading workers from supporting the union." Haluska told the Journal, "They are not giving us the full picture, just enough to discourage you." (Read more)