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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-20/wal-mart-black-friday-walkouts-can-go-on-for-now">http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-20/wal-mart-black-friday-walkouts-can-go-on-for-now</a>
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By <a
href="http://www.businessweek.com/authors/2889-elizabeth-dwoskin"
rel="author">Elizabeth Dwoskin</a> on November 20, 2012<br>
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<p>It looks like a <a
href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-16/wal-mart-workers-black-friday-strike">spate
of walkouts</a> Wal-Mart workers have planned for Black Friday
will go on. The Bentonville (Ark.)-based company had accused the
workers of illegal picketing last Friday, making a <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/business/labor-board-to-act-swiftly-on-wal-marts-complaint.html">rare
complaint</a> to the National Labor Relations Board. The
company asked the board to issue an injunction to stop the
strikes in their tracks. While the NLRB usually takes months to
issue a decision, officials said they made this case a high
priority.</p>
<p>The NLRB weighed in on Tuesday afternoon, with a statement that
isn’t going to make either party particularly pleased. Citing
the complexity of the case at hand, the NLRB decided to put off
a decision until after Thanksgiving. “The legal issues—including
questions about what constitutes picketing and whether the
activity was aimed at gaining recognition for the union—are
complex,” NLRB spokeswoman Nancy Cleeland said in a statement.
“The Memphis Office expects to complete its investigation
tomorrow (Wednesday). Because of the complexity of the case, it
will then be sent to the NLRB Division of Advice in Washington,
D.C., for further analysis. Under these circumstances, the
Office of General Counsel does not expect to make a decision
before Thursday on whether or not to seek an injunction to stop
the activity.”</p>
<p>Forty-two <span class="ticker_wrap">Wal-Mart (<a
href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=WMT"
class="ticker" data-symbol="WMT">WMT</a>)</span> workers
protesting low wages and high costs of health insurance walked
out earlier this month in Southern California and Seattle,
according to a union-backed coalition of Wal-Mart workers that
goes by the name OUR Walmart. The NLRB’s nondecision in effect
allows the strikes to continue at least until Friday morning.
But it doesn’t give the workers sure footing going forward. And
so, minutes after the NLRB issued its nondecision, OUR Walmart
filed a counter charge with the NRLB. The workers, who are
backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, alleged
that Wal-Mart management threatened workers to attempt to deter
them from the strike.</p>
<p>Wal-Mart had alleged to the NLRB that the Black Friday walkouts
were a pretense for a longer campaign by the United Food and
Commercial Workers to unionize the Wal-Mart employees. Under the
National Labor Relations Act, a union seeking recognition can
picket for a maximum of 30 days. After that, it must end the
picketing and take a formal unionization vote. The company says
protests have gone over the 30-day limit.</p>
<p>Angela B. Cornell, director of the Labor Law Clinic at Cornell
Law School, says those claims will be extremely hard for
Wal-Mart to prove. For one, workers are allowed to walk off the
job. Also, the workers have taken pains to demonstrate that the
motives for the walkouts are related to working conditions, not
to union organizing. Some workers have alleged that Wal-Mart
managers retaliated against them when they complained about
working conditions. Pickets have taken place across the country,
and the motives for them appear to be somewhat different across
stores.</p>
<p>But the connection between OUR Walmart and the UFCW is still
murky, Cornell says. If Wal-Mart can show that the UFCW is
pulling all the strings, and can prove the goal of the picketing
that began in October was to unionize, they just might have a
case. “If Wal-Mart can show that OUR Walmart is the alter ego of
the UFCW, they’ve moved their case forward,” Cornell says. “But
I don’t think it would get them that far.”</p>
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<div class="author_short_bio"><a
href="mailto:edwoskin@bloomberg.net">Dwoskin</a> is a staff
writer for <cite>Bloomberg Businessweek</cite> in Washington. </div>
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