Joe Hendricks wanted little more than respect from Wal-Mart when he decided to vote for union representation along with his coworkers in the meat department in 2000.  He told me that at Wal-Mart, “We was more of a number, you know?”  Yet after the union vote by the Jacksonville, Texas, employees, Wal-Mart eliminated meat-cutting positions companywide and argued that it had no obligation to recognize their union.  The company also fired Joe and several other union supporters.  The workers at the Jacksonville store remain the only Wal-Mart employees in the U.S. to successfully vote for union representation.

Now, eight years after the union vote, the D.C. Circuit Court just affirmed a National Labor Relations Board decision and ordered Wal-Mart to negotiate with the workers—but merely over the effects of the company’s decision to eliminate their jobs.  There will be no union representation at the store, and the workers won’t get to bargain over wage increases, job security, or better equipment.  Wal-Mart has successfully gamed the system and remains union-free.

Joe’s dream for respect is a basic one, but apparently one that our labor law system could not accommodate.