I wasn’t going to blog about this but then the audacity of Wal-Mart really got me thinking. It turns out that the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Canada have been running a very successful website at walmartworkerscanada.ca. The reason why I think this site is so great is because of what Wade Rathke in his latest book talks about and that is workers organizing through minority unionism and worker centers. While not all Wal-Mart stores in Canada and certainly none of the ones in the US have recognized unions via a government approved election. This still doesn’t mean that workers can’t organize outside of the workplace and there’s nothing any corporation especially Wal-Mart can do to stop them.

So Wal-Mart is trying to thwart this website because of what it represents and what it is doing and that is organizing workers against Wal-Mart’s will. Sure they’ve closed down stores who have tried to unionize the “normal” way (in Canada) and have fought attempts via the NLRA process in the US. However, this sort of organizing is something that is harder to stop.

The Starbucks Union is built on a similar idea. Also, before the Smithfield plant in Tar Hell, NC was finally unionized by the UFCW in the United States they too implemented direct action and minority unionism tactics for years. This sort of organizing can also be seen with the AFL-CIO’s Working America and WashTech.

In the end Wal-Mart should know that you can’t really take down a website. If they have to change some things in order to not infringe on their “trademark” then I’m sure it would be done. Also, worst case scenario do not think that a website can’t go underground! If people in Iran can find ways to organize and use the Internet as well as in Burma. Do you really think you’re going to stop the Canadians?