OFL backs inquiry into Wal-Mart Mike Harris connection

Date: Tuesday November 22nd, 2005

OFL affiliates join UFCW Canada demand for inquiry into 1990 covert campaign to bust Windsor Wal-Mart union with paper trail leading back to office of then Premier Mike Harrris

TORONTO, November 22, 2005 – Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) affiliates have called for a public inquiry into the connections between Wal-Mart Canada, former Ontario Premier Mike Harris, and a covert campaign to decertify a unionized Wal-Mart in Windsor, Ontario in the 1990’s.

The call came on the second day of the OFL 8th Biennial Convention. Delegates overwhelmingly supported a UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada) resolution demanding Ontario’s Premier McGuinty appoint a public inquiry into a 1990’s paper trail between Wal-Mart Canada, former Ontario premier Mike Harris, a secretly financed union-busting campaign at a Windsor Wal-Mart store, and Harris-government changes to the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA) that stripped away many of the powers of the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB).

As Michael J. Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada told the Toronto convention on Tuesday, “We have statements from Wal-Mart employees stating they received assistance from an unknown private investigator named Dave who worked to have the Windsor Wal-Mart decertified in the mid-1990’s.”

“We have statements of how unpaid fax machine were sent to them and how unmarked envelopes of money would show up mysteriously in their mail box. Most disturbing of all,” Fraser told the more than 3,000 delegates, “is that the former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris=s office paid for trips and gave money to people who helped get the union decertified.”

“This is what Wal-Mart is all about, but it is more than this,” said Fraser to the delegates, who also passed two other Wal-Mart resolutions Tuesday recognizing and supporting UFCW Canada and its ongoing campaign to organize Wal-Mart.

“It is also about what kind of society we want to be part of,” explained the leader of one of Canada’s largest private sector unions. “It is about what kind of jobs and economic security we want for our children. It is about whether we want low wage jobs or good paying union jobs.”

“It is about the Labour movement forcing the largest, greediest company in the world to treat their employees with dignity and respect.”

For more information:

Michael Forman, UFCW Canada Communications

(416) 675-1104, ext. 249 [email protected]

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