As they did in 2005, Wal-Mart is shutting down a location because the workers voted to form a union. Back in '05, Wal-Mart suggested that they were closing the store because it wasn't making enough money. This time, they didn't even pretend there was another reason.

Here's the Reuters article:

Wal-Mart Canada closes auto shop after union win

TORONTO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Canada (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) closed an auto center in one of its stores in Gatineau, Quebec, on Thursday, two months after employees won the right to unionize the tiny operation.

The six employees at the local Tire Lubrication Express won a three-year court battle in August to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, with the court imposing a 33 percent wage increase for the workers to an average C$13.76 an hour.

Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Kevin Groh said the company could not justify the wage hike.

"We think the numbers speak for themselves when the imposed contract would increase operating costs by more than 30 percent and combined with the fact that TLEs (Tire Lubrication Express) operate under very narrow profit margins, such a large increase could have raised consumer prices by more than 30 percent," Groh said.

"No business can afford to run an unprofitable unit and it's unlikely customers would accept a 30 percent price increase."

In 2005, the company closed a Wal-Mart store in Jonquiere, Quebec, that had been the first in North America to win union certification. The store had employed 190 people.

Union representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Five associates and one manager of the tire and lubrication bay at the store were offered jobs at other local Wal-Mart automotive shops, Groh said. The larger retail store in Gatineau that housed the Tire Lubrication Express remains open.

And here's the press release from the United Food and Commercial Workers:

The closure of a unionized Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec "is another attack on its workers, on the community, and one more example of its blatant disregard for Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms," says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.

"Wal-Mart thinks a cheap oil change is more important than the Canadian constitution."

Wal-Mart Canada announced Thursday that it was shutting the Gatineau outlet because a union contract, which came into force in August, didn't fit with its business model. It is the second time Wal-Mart has shut a Quebec outlet after its workers decided to form a union.

In April 2005 Wal-Mart shut its store in Jonquiere, Quebec and terminated more than 200 workers just as binding arbitration for a first-contract was set to begin. Later this year the Supreme Court will hear arguments that the shutting of the Jonquiere store was a violation of those workers' rights.

In June 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that under the Charter's Freedom of Association protections, workers in Canada are guaranteed the right to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining, "but once again Wal-Mart has proven the only rules it respects are its own, " said Hanley.

"For Wal-Mart to say its employees are free to unionize, but then declare that a contract produced through mediation just doesn't work for their business model, means as far as Wal-Mart is concerned, the rights of its American shareholders are more important than the human rights of its workers in Canada."

"Now it is up to the Supreme Court to tell Wal-Mart that it is not above the law and that it must respect the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively."