Wal Mart Stores Inc. announced on Feb. 9 that they will close a Canadian store whose employees were on the verge of being the first in North America to win a union contract from the retailing giant. The jobs of 200 employees will be lost.

One United Food and Commercial Workers representative told CBS News that this was Wal Mart's way of throwing a "hissy-fit" because the union was finally going to win an organizing battle.

A bargaining unit was certified by the Province of Quebec in September after workers at the Jonquiere Wal Mart store voted to bring in the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Later, workers at a second Quebec store were granted union status. But contracts between the union and Wal Mart were never reached.

Wal Mart claims that coming to an agreement with the union would have made the Jonquiere store unprofitable.

"We were hoping it wouldn't come to this," said Andrew Pelletier, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, to the AP. "Despite nine days of meetings over three months, we've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably."

Several years ago a group of meat cutters at a Wal Mart store in Texas voted to unionize. Wal Mart's response was to do away with meat cutter jobs and only sell prepackaged meat in all of its stores.

"This latest action by Wal-Mart demonstrates, once again, the company's systematic abuse of working families," said UFCW International President Joe Hansen. "This is a company that prefers to spend millions and millions to dress up its image on TV, rather than treat workers with respect."

The company, which operates more than 3,600 Wal Mart and Sam's Club stores in the U.S., has never failed to successfully beat back a union organizing attempt in this country.