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(Nov 9-UFCW) After Wal-Mart found out that Stock Clerk Ed Eagen signed a Union card in the Port Orange, Fla.,
store, managers began watching Eagen and his night crew like a hawk and tried to enforce new, tougher productivity standards on them. When Eagen complained about the treatment
and used some mild profanity for emphasis, Wal-Mart used it as an excuse to fire the Union card signer.
Wal-Mart's rule against using profanity, workers say, is usually only enforced when Wal-Mart wants to get
rid of somebody. But in Eagen's case, it was applied in violation of U.S. labor law, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which issued a complaint against
Wal-Mart for firing Eagen. It is among the three complaints for labor law violations in five stores newly issued by the NLRB, and the 10 complaints against the nation's
largest retailer since Labor Day.
"Sam Walton's reputation for shooting straight with employees is the latest victim of the vicious
anti-worker, anti-union campaign run out of the home office in Bentonville, Ark.," said Michael E. Leonard, executive vice president of the 1.4 million member United Food
& Commercial Workers International Union.
The newest complaints involve stores in Mountain Home, Idaho; Beckley, W.Va., and Florence and Lexington, Ky.,
in addition to the Port Orange store. They were issued after lengthy investigations by the NLRB, and now will be tried before administrative law judges. The allegations include:
-- Using the no-profanity rule as a pretext for firing Eagen for Union activity and illegally interrogating
workers about Union activities (Port Orange).
-- Having security guards illegally conduct surveillance on employees to discover their Union activities and
interest in participating in a class action gender discrimination suit (Florence and Lexington).
-- Unlawfully telling employees they would lose money from their profit-sharing bonus because the Union filed
charges with the NLRB for the company illegally removing Union literature from a bulletin board which employees used to post non-work related material (Mountain Home).
-- Illegally discriminating against Union handbillers (Beckley).
"The evidence is mounting that straight-shooting Sam Walton's heirs are the gang that can't shoot
straight with employees," said Leonard.
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