Workers worried by fear that Dunnes Stores will be sold to Walmart

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Wednesday November 05, 2008 21:20 by sher

Many workers for the food and clothing retailer Dunnes Stores are worried by rumours that the company is about to be sold to US giant Walmart.

a protest at Dunnes in 2006

So far, both Walmart and Dunnes Stores have refused to comment on the reports, but significantly, neither has denied the story. A meeting of Dunnes Stores managers has been arranged for tomorrow (Thursday) and the union MANDATE has asked for clarification of what is planned. Some say the company will simply sell off some of its stores to Walmart, while others can't see why the company would sell sites to a competitor.

In the past few months Dunnes has cut back non-frontline checkout staff across the country, and redeployed managers, buyers and IT staff to stores in a move that some say is evidence that the company is being prepared for sale to a bigger rival.

Dunnes has a poor history of employee relations, with many people remembering the lock out of staff who refused to handle goods from Apartheid South Africa; and much more recently, a case of a union representative in Dublin who was fired for wearing a Mandate badge. Many worry that Walmart, famous in the US for poor employment practices, will strip workers of hard-won benefits.

While the young union rep who was sacked for wearing her badge at work in 2006 eventually got her job back -after a campaign of protests involving thousands of activists- it is feared that Walmart's famous union busting activities will almost certainly result in more clashes with staff.

Others complain that the sale of Dunnes will see the loss of one of Ireland's biggest companies, and result in even more homogeneity of the shopping experience with few difference between an Irish city centre and a British high street.

Dunnes Stores was founded in Cork by Ben Dunne senior in 1944. His Son Ben Dunne junior was removed from the company by other members of his family in the early 1990's after scandals involving drug use and payments to Fianna Fail politicians. Now headed by his sister Margaret Heffernan, Dunnes currently has an annual turnover of 3 billion euro, making it Ireland's largest privately owned company.

Some have claimed that the reports of the Walmart takeover are not true, but many are saying that if it does not take place this time, the announcement will come next year.