Chilean Workers Unions Threaten Wal-Mart ‘Boycott’

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=atNoSGphsp3Q&refer=news

By James Attwood

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Unions representing employees of Distribucion y Servicio D&S SA, Chile’s biggest grocer, said they will take action if Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fails to respect current labor conditions after it buys the company.

“We know about Wal-Mart’s antiunion conduct,” said Cristian Cuevas, a negotiator for Chile’s central trade union organization. “If they try to impose policies they have in other countries, we have to apply a boycott to this company.”

Cuevas accompanied leaders of unions representing 5,000 employees of D&S’s Lider supermarkets at a media conference in Santiago today. Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, last week began an offer to buy D&S in a deal valued at $2.66 billion in what would be its biggest acquisition in Latin America.

Wal-Mart works with unions in the markets in which it operates, company spokesman Kevin Gardner said in an email to Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Attwood in Santiago at [e-mail]
Last Updated: December 30, 2008 11:33 EST