WSJ: Union Certification Battle Drags On At Saskatchewan Wal-Mart

[Omaha Steve]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090715-712215.html

By Andy Georgiades
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


TORONTO (DOW JONES)--A five-year battle between Wal-Mart Canada Corp. and the United Food and Commercial Workers union over certification of a store in Saskatchewan is poised to drag on after the filing of another court appeal.

UFCW Local 1400 is appealing a decision by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Peter Foley, who ruled last month that the certification of the store, in the town of Weyburn, was wrong.

The union's application to certify the store dates back to 2004, when the card-signing system was in place. Years of legal battles prolonged the actual certification by the labor relations board until December. But last year also marked a change in the provincial law that requires a secret-ballot vote for union certification.

Appeals by Wal-Mart Canada, a unit of retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), prevailed in June, when Foley ruled the board made a mistake in certifying the store in spite of the new labor laws that came into effect in May 2008.

In the union's appeal, it argues that the judge erred in determining that amendments to the labor law applied to the Weyburn proceedings and that the changes "had a retroactive and/or retrospective effect."

FULL story at link.