Tire workers in Loveland, Colorado, are poised to become the first Wal-Mart employees in years to organize a union following a ruling that cleared the way for a National Labor Relations Board-supervised election.

In November, a majority of workers in the 17-person department petitioned the NLRB to join the United Food and Commercial Workers. The company objected, claiming the department did not constitute an appropriate bargaining unit. In a 46-page decision released last week, the board rejected the company?s position and ordered the election.

The ruling is a victory for union organizers whose efforts to organize at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. have been aggressively opposed by the company. Following an organizing victory in 2000 by meat cutters at a Wal-Mart store in Jacksonville, Texas, the company announced it would no longer employ meat cutters at its stores.

While it continues to oppose unions for its U.S. workers, Wal-Mart announced last month that it would recognize unions at its stores in China, where management officials are routinely installed as local union officials by the Communist government.

Reprinted from the GOIAM website, www.iamaw.org/publications