NYT: Wal-Mart Contests Use of Name by Canadian Union

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/global/01walmart.html

By IAN AUSTEN
Published: July 31, 2009

OTTAWA — Wal-Mart’s feelings about unions in its stores are well known. In Quebec, the company does not want a union even breathing its name.

Wal-Mart Canada has asked a Quebec court to stop a union Web site from using the company’s name, color schemes, a variation of its logo, a parody of its slogan and even photographs of people wearing blue vests.

Wal-Mart says that it is seeking the injunction only to protect its trademarks. But the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, which represents employees at the retailer’s only North American store with a union contract, said on Wednesday that the company was trying to thwart its organizing efforts.

“This injunction request is an over-the-top assault on freedom of speech and on our ability to effectively communicate with Wal-Mart workers,” Wayne Hanley, the union’s president for Canada said in a statement. “Wal-Mart’s response to the success of www.walmartworkerscanada.ca is 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.”

Andrew Pelletier, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, said a recent redesign of the union’s Web site “in a way we feel infringes on our trademark” led the company to seek an injunction.

“If you don’t take steps to protect your trademark, the trademark becomes vulnerable,” Mr. Pelletier said from Mississauga, Ontario, where the Canadian unit is based. “Anyone who knows Wal-Mart knows we are an advocate of free speech and open communication.”

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