Wal-Mart Picks Free Speech Fight with Union

Wal-Mart Files Injunction Against Circular Objects

This news story out of Canada belongs in the "circular" file.

Wal-Mart is trying to limit the use of circular and oval objects. Over the years, the giant retailer, in exercising its own brand of censorship, has forced recording artists to change lyrics, 'sanitize' album covers, removed certain 'objectionable' magazines from its racks, and generally cultivated its own corporate sense of what the public should or shouldn't see.

Now the retailer has developed a list of words and images that it doesn't want its workers to read on a union website. In fact, it wants the entire union website destroyed.

On June 19, 2009, the Wal-Mart Canada Corporation filed an injunction in Montreal to force the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada from using words like "Wal-Mart alone or with other words...in a color scheme of blue, white and gold" which is similar to that adopted by Wal-Mart Canada. The injunction seeks to bar the UFCW from using such words or symbols on its website, business cards, flyers or advertising. The company has included in its injunction "an oval, circular or semi-circular design that adopts the essential characteristics and color scheme of Wal-Mart's Rebranded Indicia."

Wal-Mart Canada wants the union to "immediately take down the website" www.walmartworkerscanada.ca, and to stop using the expression "Get Respect. Live Better," which the retailer says infringes on its trademarked phrase, "Save Money. Live Better." The union would be banned from using Wal-Mart's new "spark design" that includes "spokes or figures" like the company's logo. Also on the banned list would be the words "Wal-Mart Workers Canada," and the use of any images or photos of people wearing "the blue vest and name tag badge similar to those worn on the job by Wal-Mart employees in Canada."

Wal-Mart charges that the UFCW's website and its images constitute a violation of Canada's Trade Marks Act, and that the UFCW actions are "deprecating the value of the goodwill" of the company's trademarks. Wal-Mart says the UFCW website falsely suggests a "sponsorship, connection, association or affiliation" between the UFCW and Wal-Mart.

In response to Wal-Mart's court action, the UFCW Canada has festooned its website with yellow police tape reading "Under the threat of Censorship," and has produced a spoof TV news broadcast about Wal-Mart's "seizure of the circle" that envisions a world without circles. In the news segment, motorists travel home on square wheels, and pizza shops cut off the edges of their product to produce a square pizza. "What a waste," bemoans one pizza shop owner, holding up the deleted circular edge of his pizza pie.

Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier has been quoted as saying the UFCW website is "misleading." But Wayne Hanley, UFCW Canada national president, says Wal-Mart's injunction is an "assault on freedom of speech and its ability to communicate with Wal-Mart workers." The UFCW website has been on the internet since 2003.

The union says that Wal-Mart Canada "has reached a new low" by filing the court injunction. "This injunction request is an over the top assault on freedom of speech and on our ability to effectively communicate with Wal-Mart workers," says Hanley. "It's a kneejerk response by Wal-Mart to the idea of its employees trying to understand their options as workers, and trying to share experiences with other 'associates'." Hanley described Wal-Mart's reaction to their website as "just another outrageous example of how the largest retailer in the history of the world will use its bottomless legal budget to manipulate the collective bargaining process and do just about anything to discourage its 'associates' from joining the union." The UFCW says it "is confident that Wal-Mart's case is unfounded and we are maintaining the look, feel and messaging of www.walmartworkerscanada.ca."

The UFCW agrees that "Wal-Mart has the right to not want its 'associates' organized by a union." "However, Wal-Mart does not have the right to curtail the effectiveness of a purely informational website. If Wal-Mart treats its 'associates' so well, why is it so afraid of them knowing their rights? Why is Wal-Mart so determined to prevent its associates from sharing their stories?"

The Union is urging the public to defend its "digital rights" by emailing Wal-Mart to drop their lawsuit. The union also has set up a Facebook page to SAVE the CIRCLE. For more details, click here.

No one who visits the UFCW Canada website would ever be misled into thinking its a Wal-Mart product. The unions have been spoofing Wal-Mart's corporate-speak for years. Why is Wal-Mart trying to take down the union's website now? As the company faces renewed efforts to organize its workforce, it appears to be ratcheting up its anti-union response, and in the process, trying to take down Free Speech at the same time.

First Amendment advocates might well be asking: With Wal-Mart around, how long will the circle be unbroken? We might all 'live better' if Wal-Mart stopped trying to circumscribe our free speech.

Al Norman is the founder of Sprawl-Busters, and the author of "The Case Against Wal-Mart." He has been helping communities fight big box stores for 16 years. His website is http://www.sprawl-busters.com

Comments

[ConradMazian]

The problem is that there is no penalty for misuse of Trademark rights by the owner of the trademark, so there's no incentive for Wal-Mart or any other large corporation to play nice. Legally Wal-Mart isn't doing anything wrong. Oh, the case might get tossed out of court for not having a foundation in law, but legally it's OK for them to do this.

Morally? It stinks.

[pasz]

And again that's where the UFCW and Wal-Mart have sooooo much in common. UFCW leaders have been known to refer to members as "dues units" and have characterized their organizing efforts as a quest for greater "marketshare". The two organizations are just flip sides of the same coin.

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

I'll take the side working for worker's rights, You can have the side pitting worker against worker.

[pasz]

I've no idea how this pits workers against workers. Exploitative organizations come in many shapes and sizes - some are corporations and yes, some are unions.

[TDMCA]

What an “Animal Farm” would Walmart nonsense might become had Orwell be alive today. Your employees are your worth assets, treat them with respect and dignity, and stop this donquijotesque battle with circles, ovals and coloures. Stop attacking free speech! Live better!

[pasz]

Don't cry for the UFCW. This manifestly undemocratic union has simply fallen victim to a bad case of what-goes-­around-com­es-around. Over the past decade its Canadian branch has engaged in exactly the same tactics for which it now condemns Wal-Mart to muzzle dissident members:

One member, a part-time grocery clerk, was sued for posting the union's Constitution on his union democracy web site. The judge wasn't impressed (See http://www.uniondemocracy.com/UDR/31-free%20speech%20and%20UFCW.htm)

A permanent gag order was sought against a former rep who was spilling the beans about life on the "inside". The lawsuit was eventually tossed out http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2005/2005bcsc1454/2005bcsc1454.html in 2005.

A lawsuit was filed http://www.m-f-d.org/news/s4mhhbc11g3.php against a group of dissident members for using the URL www.ufcw.net to spread the message that "the union belongs to the members". The UFCW was successful in forcing the site (then called Members for Democracy) to move to an new domain address www.uncharted.caa) http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2005/2005bcsc1904/2005bcsc1904.html but the members were able to avoid the substantial punitive damages the UFCW was seeking.

The UFCW's decade-long failed effort to organize Wal-Mart is little more than good cover for its prolific shortcomings. This latest legal skirmish is just another battle in a long war between two greedy tribes.

[freeperson]

Walmart doesn't even OWN the smiley circle. Are they going to ban Forrest Gump next?

[Lderusha]

I'm tired of hearing story after story about Walmart's ridiculous endeavors. I'm definitely voting for them in Corporate Accountability International's Hall of Shame--you should vote too. We need to keep them in the spotlight: http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/hall-shame-campaign

[Griffinhunter]

What goes around comes around. Maybe they should pay more attention to that round thing called the clock, considering the millions they ripped off from their employees by altering their time cards. The next thing you know is that Wal-Mart will claim exclusive rights to selling Cheerios.

[DelMacIan]

Outrageous. Walmart has turned union busting into a reprehensible art. As a Canadian, I think it's infuriating that a huge multinational corporation -- based in Arkansas -- can use my judicial system as a tool to undermine my rights as a worker. This latest legal challenge by Walmart is a perfect example of how shameless it is when it comes to doing and saying anything to prevent workers from understanding and exercising the union organizing and collective bargaining processes.

[clark w griswold]

what is walmart so scared of?? i don't think it is so much about the integrity of the trademark - it's gotta be more about that they are scared of the message being sent by this site. i'm sure if this was a walmart fan site (not that any of those exist probably), they wouldn't be so quick to get their army of lawyers on the case.

they have an unlimited legal budget, and these kind of challenges can go a long way to curbing our freedom of speech online. check out the www.walmartworkerscanada.ca page - you can send an easy message to the company there. i just did it, and you should too!

what's wrong walmart, can't take a bit of criticism?

[parkere]

Wal-Mart’s’ injunction is totally unfounded. There are innumerous logos out there that have a ‎similar color range and shapes.
To ban a logo design based on the fact that it is circular in shape just like the Wal-Mart logo, is ‎ludicrous. The video is correct making fun of the over zealous, freedom stamping, army of ‎lawyers curbing fundamental rights of the public. ‎

No one has the right to the circle or the square or the air or the water…‎

[Lagniappe]

They don't call them Bentonvillains for nothing!

[worriedinvt]

I like that: Walmart thinks the UFCW website is "misleadin­g." Take out all the words that allow the reader to make sense of what the website is all about, and then Walmart will consider it NOT misleading? Walmart will not be satisfied until it succeeds in controlling every corner of the citizens' interface with government. I shudder when I read how happy some people are about Walmart's eagerness to "work with" the administration on Health Care Reform. They are only on-board with the idea of compulsory employer health plans because they know it will give them an even greater advantage over smaller businesses who cannot practice the economies of scale that Walmart can in purchasing it's health plans. Walmart challenges even the most socially progressive person to think twice about how Walmart will inevitably find a way to game any well-intended program that serves as a social safety net for the people Walmart is so fond of exploiting.

[BobLablah]

Canada has limitations to free speech. It's not the US.

[dexxjones]

buried in here is the new frank luntz-style new descriptor for whistleblowing or giving a bad review about a product! "deprecating the value of the goodwill" will be the next legal tactic to silence disgruntled customers and employees from nasty corporatio­ns...

[MerhabaAbi]

Four generations of workers built and maintained unions as a force to prevent businesses from mistreating and under-paying laboreres. One generation dropped the ball and corperate America was ever vililant and broke the back of organized labor. Now we must restore unions before the laws revert to late 19th century ideology where it was every man for himself and business could play employees against each other..

[schatsie]

Get Respect, live Better...i want the bumper sticker.