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tyresiasWal-Mart to help women-owned businesses
RETAIL - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., sued for discrimination by 1.6 million female workers, will start a $25-million US private equity fund to help women- and minority-owned businesses supply products to retailers.
The first investments will be completed in three to six months, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company said Tuesday. The fund will invest in up to nine businesses and be managed by Aldus Equity of Dallas.
On Aug. 8, the retailer asked a court to narrow the scope of a class-action suit from women who say their pay and promotions lagged behind those for men.
The Calgary Herald Wed 19 Oct 2005
Page: D5 Section: Calgary Business Column: In Brief Source: From Herald News Services
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Wal-Mart appeals to labour board, court in dispute with union: Asks Superior Court to annul labour board decision that closing was sham and to reject compensation
Wal-Mart Canada is challenging a pair of recent decisions by Quebec's labour board favourable to unions.
The U.S.-based retail giant has lodged appeals at both the Quebec Labour Relations Board and Quebec Superior Court, according to court documents obtained by Canadian Press yesterday.
The board ruled in September the retailer failed to prove the closing of its store in Saguenay last spring was "genuine, true or definitive." It rejected Wal-Mart's claim the decision was caused by financial troubles at the outlet, opening the door to compensation for about 100 employees who lost their jobs.
The workers' union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, had also argued the closing in late April was designed to intimidate workers.
Wal-Mart also is appealing another decision by the board denying its bid to get the names of employees at the outlet who were in favour of organizing.
The Saguenay store, 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, was one of Wal-Mart's first outlets to unionized. But the workers there never obtained a collective agreement.
In its first set of appeals, Wal-Mart is asking Superior Court to annul the labour board's decision that the store closing was a sham and reject the compensation claims.
The labour board had noted in its decision that Wal-Mart was still renting the building housing its Saguenay store several months past the closing, suggesting the corporation may have planned to restart the operation.
But Wal-Mart said in its appeal the Saguenay store was "completely dismantled." It said it took down signs, removed its equipment and boarded up the windows. It is also claiming there is "no proof that demonstrates the closure was a plot" against the union.
In its second set of appeals, Wal-Mart argues it needs the names of the workers who agreed to join the union to question them for its own defence that it did not wage an anti-union campaign.
It is also claiming that a section of the province's Labour Code giving people the ability to join associations anonymously does not apply in this case and is contrary to Quebec's Charter of Rights.
The UFCW has maintained the closing of the Saguenay store stymied its campaign to organize workers at other Wal-Marts.
The Gazette (Montreal) Wed 19 Oct 2005
Page: B4 Section: Business Source: CP
