Union battles Wal-Mart in dispute over store closure

A two-day arbitration hearing over a dispute between Wal-Mart Stores Inc and a workers' union in Changde, Hunan province, ended on Tuesday with the giant retailer ordered to submit its plans for a settlement by Friday.

The dispute, in which a trade union is representing workers against their employer, is one of the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.

Huang Xingguo, chairman of the workers' union for Wal-Mart's Changde store, said 69 of 135 of the store's former employees have asked the union to help them seek greater compensation from the retailer after it announced on March 5 that the underperforming store would be shut down in two weeks.