Wal-Mart is denying a Chinese report that its previously announced plans to relocate some store managers has been halted. The Xinhua News Agency said that the plan was canceled due to union objections. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, maintains that it will reduce managers in Chinese stores by 145 and reassign 1,400 of them to different stores. A Wal-Mart spokesperson said the company was opening new stores, and needs experienced workers to help run them. Workers at Chinese Wal-Mart stores are represented by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (a state-sanctioned organization), and in fact, China is one of very few places where Wal-Mart employees are unionized. A trade union official says that managers do not want to be moved.
See "Wal-Mart denies Chinese management change halted", Forbes.com, April 20, 2009