800 workers at Walmart’s Mississauga, Ontario, distribution center are under the company’s first North American union contract, a two-year deal effective July 1. They received a matching raise and back pay for months when nonunion warehouse workers had already received raises.
The workers joined Unifor Local 252 nearly two years earlier, citing low wages and unsafe conditions. The contract establishes a formal disciplinary procedure; steward Kathryn Cespite said a manager tried to discipline a worker without hearing his side during the agreement’s first week. Unifor has restarted organizing at other Ontario Walmart warehouses.
Negotiations took 18 months. Unifor lead negotiator Shayne Fields said Walmart offered few bargaining dates and that he believed the company was trying to frustrate members into decertifying the union. Ontario’s first-contract process provides mediation and possible arbitration; Fields filed to advance it, starting an external clock that pressured Walmart to settle.
