Here’s the third chapter of the infamous “Wal-Mart Butchers Meat Cutters” saga. In chapter one (see 2/22/00 newsflash), a group of meat-cutters in Jacksonville, TX cut through the baloney and voted in a union at Wal-Mart. In chapter 2, Wal-Mart closes down 180 meat cutting departments (see 3/6/00 newsflash) at their stores in six states, including the cutters who voted union. Now comes chapter 3: The United Food & Commercial Workers Union is asking the National Labor Relations Board for an injunction to prevent Wal-Mart from slicing off its meat cutters. An injunction would allow the UFCW to sustain efforts to organize other Wal-Mart workers while keeping the butcher’s on the job.
Talk about a load of bull. Wal-Mart says its chopping away at the meat cutters, and replacing them with “prepackaged meat” had “absolutely nothing” to do with the cutters’ vote to organize. The vote by the small meat cutter’s department at that store in Texas clearly cut Wal-Mart clear to the bone. Stay tuned for chapter four.