TORONTO – The H&M store at the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, Ont., could soon be the first of the Swedish-based retailer’s more than 50 outlets in Canada to be unionized.
The United Food and Commercial Works union said the Ontario Labour Relations Board has agreed to hold a secret-ballot certification vote at the Mississauga store on Thursday.
The vote comes after a “strong and enthusiastic” campaign in which a “good majority” of the 45 employees signed union cards, Kevin Shimmin, a representative with UFCW Canada, said in an interview.
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If successful in Thursday’s vote, the union expects to be in negotiations with the company before Christmas, Shimmin said.
He said the employees, mostly college-age workers, are both full- and part-time employees classified as sales advisers. Among other things, they stock shelves, set up displays and work the cash registers.
“I’m really proud of these workers,” Shimmin said. “They’ve been so strong, so determined and so informed in seeking a union at this store and it would be the first H&M to be unionized in Canada and so it’s quite historical.”
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Many of the issues the H&M employees want rectified are “common throughout the whole retail clothing sector” -scheduling, hours and discrepancies in wages, he said.
Although the Mississauga store would be the first to be unionized in Canada, the UFCW already represents some 1,400 employees at 16 stores in New York City.
Shimmin said many of the company’s stores in Europe are also unionized and, along with the UFCW’s “positive” experience in contract talks in New York, “we felt that in comparison to other companies they have a better chance of sitting down and negotiating a good and a fair collective agreement.”
Meanwhile, Shimmin said organizing efforts are proceeding at the company’s other stores in Canada, including a number in Quebec.
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