Dive Brief:
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Several Walmart stores — two in Texas and others in California — were shut down last week and 2,200 workers abruptly laid off due to what the retailer said was extensive plumbing problems.
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The puzzling move has now been challenged by a group representing the workers, who say the plumbing issues are a ruse that cloak the retailer’s actual attempt to retaliate against the workers’ for their labor activism.
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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union on behalf of the group “Our Walmart” Monday will file a claim with the National Labor Relations Board to require Wal-Mart Stores to immediately rehire all 2,200 workers who were laid off in the move, either by reopening the stores or by transferring workers to others.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sent a statement to Retail Dive saying: "We don't believe there is any basis for an injunction. As we have said all along, these stores were closed temporarily so we could fix the ongoing plumbing issues and it would be unfortunate if this outside group attempts to slow this process down for our associates and customers. Each of these five locations had more than 100 plumbing problems reported over the last two years, the most out of our more than 5,000 stores in the U.S."
Dive Insight:
News of the strange confluence of plumbing issues at several Walmart stores in various states made the news last week. The statement by Wal-Mart Stores sheds little light on why the closures were so sudden or how plumbing issues came up simultaneously at different stores in disparate areas of the country.
Certainly the workers were given little notice for an issue that would presumably have some amount of lead time that would allow them to make other plans or the retailer to find other spaces for them. And the stores in question have seen a significant amount of activism. “Walmart has targeted this store because the associates have been among the most active associates around the country to improve working conditions,” the workers’ claim reads in part.
In any case, the NLRB will now have to puzzle it all out.
