(MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO/CANADA) - Eight hundred Workers near Toronto have won the first Walmart Warehouse Union in Canada or in the United States.

The Walmart Distribution Center is in Mississauga - an hour from the Western New York/Buffalo Border.

Workers there began organizing last December to join Unifor, Canada’s largest Private-Sector Union.

Forty-percent of the Workforce signed Union Cards over the Summer.

The Retail Giant Walmart is not only the biggest private employer in the U.S., but also the biggest in the world.

In Canada maintains 400 stores and employes 100,000 Workers.

Employee Rodolfo Pilozo cited low wages and pressure to work dangerously fast as the main concerns that pushed the Walmart Workers to organize.

“Honestly I was pretty nervous at first because I didn’t want to lose my job,” said the 29-year Employee Pilozo, a Member of Team Red, the Organizing Committee behind the Union victory.

Team Red initiated a Red-Shirt Wednesday so Workers could join even if they didn’t have a Unifor shirt, said Angela Drew Kimelman, an Organizer with the Union.

She said the Committee formed after a Worker called the Union’s Organizing Hotline.

“We started wearing red (Unifor) hats or red buttons on our shift and other Co-Workers would come talk to us about it,” Pilozo said. “Sometimes I would help hand out the leaflets in the parking lot.  When other Co-Workers saw me and other workers there, and not just the Union Staff, they started rolling down their windows more and talking to us more.”

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: Walmart Warehouse Workers Win First Union in Canada | Labor Notes