I actually thought that unionized and Wal-Mart were two words that could never be put together but obviously I was wrong.

Saint-Hyacinthe boasts the only unionized Wal-Mart store in North America with a contract after a Quebec arbitrator imposed one yesterday.

Both Wal-Mart Canada Corp. and the United Food and Commercial Workers union are claiming victory after reading Alain Corriveau’s 46-page ruling.

This is significant because Wal-Mart actually closed down the last store that unionized.

It was Corriveau who last summer imposed a collective agreement on Wal-Mart for nine employees at the store’s Tire & Lube garage in Gatineau, calling for 33-per-cent wage hikes for entry-level auto workers.

Wal-Mart subsequently closed that garage and another unionized store in Jonquière before contracts were negotiated, blaming union demands for making those operations unprofitable.

The union is awaiting a Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the closing of the Jonquière store in 2005, four years after it opened.

And the struggle continues but at least there’s a small win.

From an email I just got.

Joint statement of Smithfield and UFCW

The parties have reached a settlement of the lawsuit pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division. The essential elements of the settlement are as follows:

1. Smithfield and the UFCW have agreed on what both parties believe to be a fair election process by which the employees at Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant can choose whether or not to be represented by the UFCW.

2. Smithfield and the UFCW have agreed to establish a Feed the Hungry Program to be jointly funded and administered by the UFCW and Smithfield.

3. The UFCW agrees to end its public campaign against Smithfield.

4. The parties have agreed there shall be no further public statement about this settlement until the election referenced in paragraph one above has been concluded.

Congratulations to the United Food and Commercial Workers union.