Walmart Canada

Once again Walmart shows why it is king. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., known for its strong stance against workers unionizing, on Thursday closed a tire and lube center in Canada where workers had voted to organize.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the five workers and one manager at the center were offered jobs at comparable Wal-Mart facilities or elsewhere in the store, which is located in Gatineau, Quebec and has more than 250 workers. The store itself will remain open.

The closure comes after an arbitrator in Quebec had imposed a labor contract on the facility in August.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union called the closure an "attack" on Wal-Mart workers. Wal-Mart in 2005 closed a store in Jonquiere, Quebec, after workers there agreed to unionize. The union has a Canada Supreme Court case pending over whether those workers' rights were violated.

Wayne Hanley, president of UFCW Canada, said the closing violates workers' rights.

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

Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier said the contract that was imposed on Wal-Mart in August would have raised costs too much. "It could require us to increase consumer prices by more than 30 percent," Pelleti

What really makes this so interesting is that Walmart is a solid stock on the S&P Canada, and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop them.