The mayor of a southeastern Saskatchewan community is worried the area's biggest retailer could close, following a decision by the province’s labour board allowing employees to unionize.

In a 71-page decision dated Dec. 4, the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board approved a request to certify the Wal-Mart in Weyburn. All employees, except pharmacy, office staff and department managers, are affected.

Wal-Mart was criticized after it closed a store shortly after employees unionized in Jonquière, Que., in 2005, a move the company continues to blame on poor performance by the store.

Now, concerns are being raised about the future of the outlet in Weyburn, a city with a population of about 9,400.

“We're very concerned about losing a major retailer in our community,” Weyburn Mayor Debra Button said. “We worked too hard to get the Wal-Mart here … If the decision by Wal-Mart is to close the store, we'll certainly be feeling that.”

Both Button and Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Dustin Duncan said they have received phone calls from residents worried about the future of the store. Button said she has written the CEO of Wal-Mart Canada to ask about the company’s intentions.

Wal-Mart Canada said it will appeal the ruling to unionize, pointing out that many of the employees who signed union cards no longer work at the Weyburn store.

“The fact that you’ve got a store now with 104 associates … and only 29 of them were even there at the time of the union’s application, really speaks to the fact that it would be a bit of a stretch to assume that there is widespread support for that store for this union,” said Andrew Pelletier, spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada.

Changes to Saskatchewan’s Trade Union Act this year made it a requirement that a secret ballot vote be held, open to all employees in the proposed bargaining unit, before a union can be certified.

Paul Meneima, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1400, said the decision to unionize the Weyburn store fits with the pre-2008 act, which allowed for union certifications when 50 per cent of employees, plus one, signed union cards.

Meneima stressed that the majority of employees wanted the union at the time of the application, but said workers have the right to seek decertification of the union if they wish. He said he expects Wal-Mart to delay negotiations of a collective agreement using the courts as long as possible.

The UFCW and Wal-Mart have been trying to negotiate a collective agreement in Ste-Hyacinthe, Que., Canada’s only other unionized Wal-Mart, for almost four years.

The decision to unionize the Weyburn Wal-Mart came after almost five years of legal wrangling. The UFCW applied for certification on April 14, 2004. During labour board hearings, some employees made claims that the union intimidated them into signing union cards. The board dismissed those claims, saying there was no evidence.

Anthony Bianco, a writer for Business Week and author of The Bully of Bentonville: How the High Cost of Everyday Low Prices is Hurting America, said the unionization of the Weyburn store has significance, not only for Canada, but also for North America.

“Wal-Mart has always offered stiff resistance to any attempts to organize,” said Bianco, pointing out that the UFCW “basically gave up trying to organize in the United States in 2003.”

Bianco said Wal-Mart is worried that by having a store with union members, it will “entice” other workers across North America to organize.

“There’s no doubt that Wal-Mart recognizes that, and that’s why they fight so hard to thwart the efforts of their employees to get a union,” said Meinema.

The UFCW is awaiting labour board decisions to unionize Wal-Mart stores in the Saskatchewan communities of North Battleford and Moose Jaw.