Does Walmart have a union? (all you need to know)
Unions are a powerful way for workers to use their numbers and common goals to meet their needs, concerns and aspirations.
While you’re more likely to be in industries like education or law enforcement, unions still represent workers from many different fields, including retail.
As one of the largest retailers in the world, you might be wondering: Does Walmart have a union? Are there any, if not all, representatives of their employees, like the ones at Costco? Here’s what you need to know.
Does Walmart have a union?
Walmart employees are not currently unionized. While Walmart insists they are not “anti-union” but “pro-employee,” there is evidence that the retail giant engages in union-busting activities, such as employee surveillance. While some groups have tried for years to form unions, those efforts have come to naught.
To learn more about why Walmart employees aren’t unionizing, how Walmart employees have tried to unionize in the past, and whether employees will try in the future, read on!
Why doesn’t Walmart form a union?
Walmart is a highly profitable business with more than 11,000 stores worldwide, hundreds of millions of customers and billions of dollars in annual revenue.
Additionally, they employ millions of people worldwide, including 1.6 million in the U.S.
The power wielded by a company with such global reach is enormous, beyond the imagination of many of us.
Maintaining profitability—indeed, increasing profitability—is the goal of any business, anywhere, no matter its size, every year.
So if I had to guess, Walmart, with its millions of employees, probably wants to avoid the drain of financial resources that unions could cause.
Wes Bennet has been with Walmart for nearly 20 years.
On a Quora page about Walmart’s relationship with unions, he said, “… many of the benefits promised by unions have become cost prohibitive.”
He went on to point out that when employee benefits go up, product prices usually go up as well.
This would prevent Walmart from offering the lowest prices on thousands of items – basically their entire business model.
The collective bargaining power of millions of highly trained workers, especially at this point, would be hugely disruptive to a company that has been doing things a certain way for a long time.
Instead of unionizing its employees, Walmart maintains a strong “pro-employee” stance.
They indicated that they prefer to interact directly with employees rather than through a third party.
Which Walmart locations are unionized?
As of this writing, no Walmart stores in the U.S. or elsewhere are currently unionized.
When a department or store tried to unionize, Walmart moved quickly to shut down those operations in the interests of the company.
See the next section for some examples of Walmart’s union-busting actions.
Have Walmart employees ever tried to unionize?
Walmart workers have tried to unionize in the past.
Perhaps the most famous example occurred in 2000, when the meat division of Walmart in Jacksonville, Texas contacted the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
After his division voted to join the UFCW — a first ever for a Walmart employee — the other three meat divisions followed suit.
The meatcutters, led by a butcher with nearly 25 years of experience, were dissatisfied with unfulfilled promises and saw new hires being hired, initially with better pay.
Likely in direct retaliation, Walmart axed the original meat department along with 179 other departments.
They announced they were switching to prepackaged meat and getting rid of in-store butchers entirely.
Something similar happened in Quebec, Canada in 2004.
The entire store is unionized with assistance from the Canadian Federation of Food and Commercial Workers.
Pro-union workers are harassed, humiliated and threatened by management, resulting in an increasingly hostile work environment.
However, the following year, superiors announced that the newly opened Wal-Mart store was about to close.
The matter went to the Supreme Court of Canada, where a judge ruled against Walmart, saying their unionization grounds for closing stores was illegal.
In fact, in the United States, employers are legally prohibited from threatening to deter union activity among employees by saying, for example, that they will close stores or cut benefits.
Time and time again, however, Walmart has found itself in trouble for violating these laws.
In 2018, Walmart reached a settlement in which they must admit it was illegal to threaten employees who expressed support for a strike or organization.
Will Walmart employees unionize in the future?
It looks like going to be an uphill battle for future Walmart workers to unionize, as the retailer appears to have endless financial resources at their disposal.
However, organizations like OUR Walmart, the UFCW affiliate, get smarter and stronger every year.
Walmart’s Organization United For Respect (hence our Walmart) actually changed its name to United4Respect.
Their website claims that their work helped Walmart earn a new base salary of $11.
While it may not have produced many official results, union activity appears to be exerting steady pressure on Walmart.
For example, Walmart recently announced that they will raise wages for approximately 400,000+ workers, bringing their average wages to $15 an hour.
They also announced their intention to have at least two-thirds of their workforce full-time by early 2022, with stable wages and hours.
If you want to learn more about Walmart, you can also check out our related articles on Walmart’s Competitive Advantage, Is Walmart Owned by China, and Is Costco Unionized.
in conclusion
Walmart is not currently unionized and has long opposed union activity.
Employees and organizations like UFCW and United4Respect are fighting back, but Walmart’s power as an employer is formidable.
However, as the culture shifts toward great employee rights and benefits, we’re also seeing Walmart shift, albeit a bit slower than competitors like Costco or Miejer.
