Business

Whistle-Blower Claims Dirty Tactics To Unionize Wal-Mart Employees

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

A former union organizer argued Tuesday that questionable tactics are being used to unionize Wal-Mart employees.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and its subsidiary OUR Walmart claim to be promoting better working conditions for employees by organizing rallies at 1,600 Wal-Mart stores on Black Friday.

The groups are forbidden from attempting to unionize Wal-Mart employees according to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling but Rian Wathen, a UFCW member, says his union and OUR Wal-Mart are secretly doing just that.

Wathen has been a member of the UFCW for 15 years and once served as an organizing director and local executive officer for the union.

“The UFCW has not been able to unionize workers at any store,” Wathen told reporters during a teleconference hosted by Worker Center Watch. “Wal-Mart workers have rejected them.”

Wathen argued that by using OUR Walmart as a front group to bypass labor regulations, they are not just violating NLRB rules, they are also essentially admitting defeat.

“Their front groups are nothing more than efforts to unionize Walmart employees,” Wathen said of OUR Walmart. “They are deceiving the public that Wal-Mart employees want to sign up when they don’t.”

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told reporters that many participants aren’t even Wal-Mart employees.

“Many of these people have been solicited by the AFL-CIO and the UFCW,” she said.

As a result of a labor dispute between Wal-Mart and the UFCW last year, the NLRB dropped an unfair labor practice charge against the union so long as they don’t attempt to unionize the retail giant’s workers and put a disclaimer on the bottom of the OUR Walmart website. (RELATED: Watchdogs Worry Black Friday Campaign Is Really About Unionizing Wal-Mart)

TheDCNF could not reach OUR Walmart or the UFCW for further comment.

Follow Connor on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For  licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.