Wal-Mart can breathe a sigh of relief for its Canadian operations. A union's attempt to organize the automotive department of a British Columbia Wal-Mart store has been thwarted by labor relations board in that Canadian province. Apparently, the board did not see the justification of trying to organized a specific subsection of Wal-Mart employees in a store without the entire store being included, and due to that action being considered undemocratic and unrepresentative, the attempted unionization failed.

However, a store in Saguenay, Quebec was the first Wal-Mart outlet in North America to organize a successful union drive -- so the efforts to organize a union collective are far from over in Canada and even the U.S. in my opinion. If entire stores have attempts at unionization, then that process should complete itself, even if it looks like a detriment to Wal-Mart. The employees will make the decision, and if Wal-Mart's workers feel they are not being treated fairly, a union could assist in that situation. Leave it to the employees, not politics.