Wal-Mart seeks injunction against protestors

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has a business to run and the lawsuit the retailer filed in Benton County Circuit Court last week is a step to protect that enterprise, its customers and employees from protest distractions, the company told The City Wire on Monday (May 20).

The complaint for injunctive relief from trespass was filed against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the affiliated OURWalmart group on Tuesday, May 14. It was roughly one week after OURWalmart publicly announced plans to bring their concerns to Bentonville ahead of the retailer’s annual shareholder meeting set for June 7.

“The lawsuit filed against the UFCW and its agents is to help protect our customers and associates from further disruptions associated with the union’s continued, illegal trespassing,” said Dan Fogleman, Walmart spokesman.

“Many of our store associates have told us they find these UFCW-led demonstrations, including picketing, blocking entrances, staging group confrontations with members of management and even conducting flash mobs inside our stores to be disrespectful and they have asked us to do something to stop these tactics,” he said.

Derek Fouts is a customer service manager at Walmart Store No. 1 in Rogers and remembers the protests he witnessed on Oct. 10. Fouts said more than 100 protestors from the union group rushed into the store and grabbed almost all the shopping carts locking the doors behind them.

He said they gathered near the front of the store and began chanting and beating on pots and pans making customers, employees and children in the store uncomfortable.

Fouts said these protestors proceeded to fill up the shopping carts in what he called a register dump.

“They grabbed meats, frozen food and other perishables stormed the check-out lines and unloaded the basket onto the conveyor belt and let the cashier ring up the entire purchase. Then they said they didn’t want it, we call that a register dump,” Fouts said.

He said those working in the store at the time were tasked with returning the merchandise in addition to their normal duties.

“Some of the product was lost because by the time we got around to restocking it all, the most perishable had been out of freezer or cold element too long.” he said.

Fouts found it ironic that the group said it was protesting for better working conditions but their actions that day created more work and an uncomfortable situation for employees in the Rogers store.

“Their illegal trespassing has made some of our customers uncomfortable, has disrupted our associates’ work and, in many cases, we’ve had to call police to get them to leave. Their unlawful actions are disrespectful to both our associates and our customers and have to stop,” Fogleman said.

In the suit Wal-Mart maintains it has the right to manage, control and operate its commercial business affairs without the interference of protests.

The suit claims Wal-Mart attempted to resolve these continued trespasses on its properties through non-judicial means, including numerous cease and desist demands to the defendants and their agents. Copies of those requests were attached to the 13-page suit.

The most recent demonstration was carried out April 13 at a Rogers Walmart, according to the filing. The retailer also noted in the complaint a caravan has been planned by OURWalmart for shareholders’s week leaving it no choice but to pursue relief from the court.

The UFCW and OURWalmart’s mission is to help Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publicly commit to adhering to labor rights and standards, according to an email from the organization.

“During the weeks leading up to the meeting, workers and community supporters will call for the board of directors and the Walton family to be responsible to their employees and to the economy by creating good quality jobs for workers at its stores, warehouses, and along the supply chain,” the defendants noted in an email on May 6.

“OUR Walmart members and their supporters are also bringing their message directly to members of the board and the Walton family, before they arrive in Bentonville – speaking at shareholder meetings of other companies where Wal-Mart directors also sit, and at public speaking events and fundraisers where board members are present.”

OUR Walmart member Colby Harris said, Wal-Mart board members like Rob Walton, Marissa Mayer and Aida Alvarez can do so much more to be leaders in this company and to “help change the way Wal-Mart treats workers. We are telling them that silence is no longer an option.”