Score: Card Check 0, Wal-Mart 1

Now, here's one for all of you who love the idea of card-check unionization as embodied in the nascent Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), using card check, organized a Wal-Mart store just outside Montreal, Canada, in 2005. And, of course, it began collecting union dues (the sine qua non of labor and politics, the almighty buck).

The UFCW spent the next three-plus years trying to negotiate a contract, and this was in the heart of union-loving, union-friendly Canada, with Wal-Mart balking the whole time.

The issue, a la EFCA, went to arbitration, and the arbitrator this week issued his finding.

Guess what?

Wal-Mart won big time. Arbitrator (remember, this is unionville) Alain Corriveau ruled that the UFCW demands would destroy Wal-Mart's business model, which he said treated employees as well or better, wage- and benefits-wise, as competing retailers.

Wal-Mart’s compensation system, said the arbitrator, "must be retained," and "falls within the culture of the company which encourages and privileges performance at work." He added: "Putting into place...a wage scale as proposed by the union would also drastically change an important piece of [Wal-Mart’s] business model."

He did grant a 30-cent wage increase over the next two years to current employees at the Saint-Hyacinthe Wal-Mart so they wouldn't be "impoverished" by union dues. New hires will not get the raise, however. (Read more details here.)

Question: Are the employees now going to card check the UFCW out of their store?

Answer: If they're smart, they will.