Judge says Wal-Mart violated worker's rights
ANCHORAGE - A National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled an employee fired from the Wasilla Wal-Mart store should be reinstated and given back pay, saying the company had "eviscerated" the worker's rights.
"This is something we're so excited about," said Walter Stuart, president of United Food & Commercial Workers statewide Local 1496.
The ruling comes as the UFCW's nationwide campaign to unionize the discount retail chain heats up. There are no unions among the more than 1 million workers in Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, and the company has said it wants it to stay that way.
The UFCW said Wal-Mart's efforts to keep workers from organizing have strayed into illegality, pointing to a string of complaints against the company, some settled, some pending.
Wal-Mart will appeal the judge's decision, a spokeswoman said.
"Wal-Mart is not anti-union," said spokeswoman Cynthia Illick. "However, we do not feel a union is right for Wal-Mart."
Judge Burton Litvack cautioned his decision may be reversed. The National Labor Relations Board, which will hear an appeal, has flip-flopped before on the law at the heart of Litvack's ruling.
The case centers around employees' right to have a co-worker present during a disciplinary talk with management. In March, the court found, a Wal-Mart employee complained to management that co-worker Ken Stanhope "got in her face," yelling and cursing about management and the need for a union as protection. Managers later approached Stanhope for his side of the story. He said he did not want to talk without a witness.
Litvack said management had three legal choices: agree, stop the interview, or give him the choice of stopping or continuing without a witness. Stanhope stood as if to leave. One manager testified he told Stanhope to sit down. Another manager then questioned him about his actions. That violated Stanhope's rights to have a witness.