Workers at Walmart warehouse in Mississauga, Ont. vote to unionize in a Canadian first

People shop at a Walmart in Vaughan, Ont., on Wednesday, July 2, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

A group of workers at a Mississauga Walmart warehouse has become the first in Canada to unionize at one of the company’s warehouses.

More than 40 per cent of the 800-plus workers at the facility signed a union card this summer. The Ontario Labour Board then awarded them a vote which was held Sept. 10-12.

Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, said Friday that workers voted to join the union.

“I really congratulate these workers on their courage and determination in terms of exercising their rights,” Unifor National President Lana Payne told CP24.com in an interview.

She said they did so in the face of staunch opposition from the company.

While the official numbers from the vote have not been released yet, Payne said the yeas were around 427, while the nays were about 300.

“(That) is pretty good when you consider this is the first Walmart warehouse ever organized in Canada,” she said. “It is a massive victory for these workers.”

In a statement, Walmart Canada confirmed the outcome of the vote and said it is reviewing next steps in the process.

“We’ve always believed that the best person to speak for our associates is the associate,” the company said. “Our culture is founded on an environment of transparency, honesty, and direct dialogue with our associates, without involving individuals outside of our organization who don’t know our culture or our business.”

Unifor began its campaign to unionize the facility about 10 months ago in December 2023.

Health and safety in the workplace, proper scheduling, and “earning a decent wage” were factors that prompted workers to sign a union card, Payne said.

“The reality is that this employer and this corporation has for many, many decades fought unionization,” she said. “And the fact is, the workers have expressed that they want a union in their workplace. This is the law of the land, and we expect Walmart to respect it and to respect the wishes of their employees here.”

She said the workers will next form a bargaining committee and then reach out to the company to begin bargaining for a collective agreement.