Wisconsin Wal-Mart Workers Reject Union

MERRILL, Wis. —  Workers at a Wal-Mart store here Friday voted against joining the United Steelworkers union, in the first union test by employees of a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. store in the U.S.

The vote was 54-27 against joining the union, said the National Labor Relations Board, which conducted the election.

By saying no, the employees avoided tarnishing Wal-Mart’s image--that of happy blue-aproned workers known as “associates” pitching in at a company that portrays itself as one big family.

“Wal-Mart associates speak for themselves, and this vote sends a message loud and clear,” David Glass, Wal-Mart president and chief executive, said in a statement. “Our associates once again have left no doubt that they believe workplace issues are best resolved . . . without interference by a third party,” Glass said.

Mary Krombholz, who works in the personnel department but wasn’t eligible to vote, said the mood at the store was tense as ballots were cast.

“Everybody is so protective of their feelings. We used to be family,” Krombholz said.

Of the 120 employees, 94 workers were eligible to vote.

Patsy Shafer, a United Steelworkers organizer in Wisconsin, said the union wanted all workers in the store to be eligible to join the proposed bargaining unit. But Wal-Mart persuaded the NLRB to exclude store managers, department managers and “support teams,” which include key people in the personnel department, she said.

Union supporters pressed for representation to win higher wages and more equal treatment in getting raises, secure scheduling by seniority and guarantee a formal procedure for settling grievances.

Of Wal-Mart’s 780,000 employees worldwide, only one store--in Windsor, Canada--has a union representing workers.

The world’s biggest retailer has defeated all other unionization attempts since its founding in Arkansas by Sam Walton in 1962, mainly by relying heavily on stock incentives to motivate its relatively low-paid work force.

In 1994, the company paid $15,000 to settle a complaint by a store clerk in New Hampshire who said she was fired for trying to organize her co-workers.

Although union elections have been held at the company’s Sam’s Club warehouse stores and other operations, they have not been held at a domestic Wal-Mart store before.

Schafer said hourly wages paid in Merrill range from minimum wage to about $14 an hour.

However, the union determined that the most any Wal-Mart worker below the level of supervisor earned is about $8 an hour, Schafer said. “And not many people have the $8.”

Some industry analysts said a companywide effort to organize Wal-Mart workers would raise concerns about higher wages. But they said unionizing the retailer, which has 3,000 stores and affiliates worldwide, would be a huge undertaking.

The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., had 1996 sales of $104.8 billion. On Friday, Wal-Mart shares fell $1 to close at $37.06 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wal-Mart has 2,308 stores and 439 Sam’s Club stores in the United States and seven foreign countries.

Merrill is in central Wisconsin and has 10,000 residents.