What’s On Trial December 3rd?
Walmart is the world’s largest importer from China so maybe it’s not so surprising that when it comes to the internet, Walmart and China have some things in common. For instance, China keeps a steel grip on what people can and cannot see on the internet, and back here in Canada it looks like Walmart is trying to do the same thing when it comes to this web site.
A year-and-a-half ago Walmart decided it wanted to pull the plug on walmartworkerscanada.ca. Well, you’re still reading this — so, so far they haven’t succeeded. And what’s their complaint? Well, they’ll tell it to a judge of the Quebec Superior Court in Montreal during 5 day hearings from December 13th to 17th. Meanwhile, walmartworkerscanada.ca been around for seven years, so why all of a sudden is this web site — according to Walmart —such a threat to their business?
Walmart wants an injunction against us. It is trying to use copyright law to stop this web site from using the internet to communicate effectively to help Walmart workers in Canada understand and exercise their rights as workers. They want to shut shutdown this site, or at the very least, control what we can write about or show on the website. Maybe that’s how it works in China or Iran, but from what I can see Canada is still a free country with a Charter of Rights that includes freedom of expression.
The great thing about the internet is that it lets people connect in ways they never could before. Twitter, and Facebook and YouTube are huge because ordinary people, not just corporations, can now put their ideas out there and build networks and push for change. It’s also a great way for everyday people to get informed and build their strength and courage together.
We’re into that. That’s not dangerous. That’s democracy.
Mike,
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Getting rich in the red
Yesterday morning, like most mornings, I was surfing the web for the latest news and came across the some unemployment data that came out last week and the impending 'second dip' of our economy, and I started to think about the massive debts corporations owe to governments around the world. Then, after some Googling, I landed on an article from La Jornada, a well-known Mexican newspaper.
The article had a list of the most significant debtors in Mexico. Guess what? Our dear friend Walmart was one of the most prominent corporations in the list. Wal-Mart owes the Mexican people a bundle. And I mean a massive bundle. I quote from the article “….Wal-Mart, the child labour exploiter per excellence, owes the government 5,252,000,000.00 pesos”.
If we convert that to Canadian dollars, we’d be looking at $427,653,151.85. Yes, that’s close to half a billion dollars that Wal-Mart owes the people of Mexico. Did Walmart share holders – and we know who the biggest are – receive their dividends? Imagine how many schools could be built with that money. Or how many hospitals could have been opened to help meet the massive healthcare and social service needs of the Mexican people?
The $427,653,151.85 is the equivalent – or in many cases exceeds – the deficits and foreign debts of countries around the world.
It must be nice to be Wal-Mart Mexico!
Mike,
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
To big box, or not to big box
Well it took six years but the Ontario Municipal Board finally did the right thing this week by declaring "the Beast of Bentonville" persona non grata in a great little town about an hour and a half from Toronto.
For anyone who hasn't been to Stratford, it's the home of a world renown Shakespeare festival that features some of the best actors alive and draws spectators from all over. It's a unique, vibrant place with a tonne of charm and character that makes everybody come back for more.
In other words, Stratford is a place with a lot to lose. Nobody knows that better than the people who live and work there. That's why they told Walmart 'No thanks' when the world's largest retailer came calling with its squigglys and cheap underwear.
Saying 'No' to Walmart in Ontario usually means a slight delay while the mega-corporation fills its PR machine with high octane and waves some raw meat in front of its lawyers. In other words, most of the time the OMB rolls over for bix box developers, but the community win in Stratford, and a recent community win in Toronto's Leslieville, suggest that maybe the Province is starting to listen to Ontarians.
Bravo to the OMB for finally being true to thine self. A fitting end to what is hopefully the final act in the Stratford Walmart production.
Mike,
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart sends out bizarre news release
If you just read the lead of a recent news release by Walmart Canada, you'd think Walmart management had turned over a new leaf. The release says that Canada's biggest retalier "recently recognized the unique family status of one of its associates who is the sole caregiver for a severely disabled family member."
But keep reading. And it's the same old story.
The Walmart associate with unique family status is a woman named C.D., and the severely disabled family member is her grandchild, who she is trying to raise and care for by herself. It's quite a story, but you'd never know it from Walmart's press release. To learn about C.D. and what she's trying to do for her grandchild, you'd have to read an interim decision by The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO).
Put the pieces together and it seems that Walmart management turned C.D.'s life upside down when it sandbagged her with a sudden shift change. I can't begin to image what's involved in caring for a severely disabled child, but I have to think an abrupt, and seemingly permanent, schedule shift from days to nights causes a whole lot of problems. The documents don't say what happened next, but it looks like someone told C.D. ‘not my problem'.
Here's the bizarre part. In its news release about C.D.'s "unique family status" Walmart acknowledges the human rights tribunal complaint while at the same time framing itself as a model employer. "We believe that when an associate is faced with unique family obligations like those of C.D., who is the sole caregiver of for a severely disabled family member, it is important to provide the right work environment," said Walmart's vice-president of public relations.
Huh? Either this is a case of corporate split-personality disorder or another example of the Walmartization of corporate social responsibility, where multi-nationals use every CSR buzz word in the book while sticking suppliers with the tab for a couple of good deeds. Seeing as Walmart's PR pros are crazy like a fox, it must be the latter. Dont' buy it.
Mike,
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart fails to make the grade with new Canadians
Walmart has long boasted that it's one of Canada's "best employers", but according to a recent report described in the Globe and Mail, the world's largest retailer doesn't make the grade when it comes to "associates" who are new Canadians.
The report, developed by Mediacorp Canada Inc., looks at how the country's largest companies treat employees who are new to Canada. The study grilled Canada's largest employers and found out whether or not they "reduce employment barriers for recent immigrants", or if they "offer programs such as internal coaching or mentoring to help employees who are recent immigrants understand the Canadian workplace." The study found that some companies do those things and a lot more. In fact, the report went so far as to name 35 companies as the "best employers for new Canadians".
The top 35 are some of the best know businesses and institutions in the country, representing some of the Canada's most important industries. Missing from the list, however, is Canada's largest retail employer, which is really unfortunate because Walmart employs nearly 100,000 Canadians, many of whom are very new to the country.
Walmart's absence is conspicuous but not that surprising. After all, it's an employer with a long history of rights busting and discriminatory treatment of its "associates" (lest we forget Dukes vs. Walmart Stores Inc.).
But take my word for it; just read the newspaper.
Mike,
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart's sick leave policy not very "responsible"
Beatrice Parker is raining on Walmart's CSR parade. The story told by the former door greeter calls into question Walmart's commitment to corporate social responsibility, as the world's largest retailer proudly proclaimed at its recent "Green Business Summit" in Vancouver. If Beatrice's story is any indication, Walmart still has a lot to learn about human rights (if a bathroom break isn't recorded somewhere as a human right, it should be).
Beatrice's story doesn't just provide folks with yet another reason to doubt Walmart's stated commitment to doing the right thing, but - as Taylor Leake recently wrote in The Huffington Post - it also raises serious questions about the corporation's response to workers who aren't feeling well, and the impact of that approach on public health. Keep in mind a million Canadians pass through Walmart every single day. So the question is: with that kind of policy, and that level of store traffic, how long would it take for Walmart to make us all "green"?
MIke,
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
New must-read about "The Beast"
There's a new must-read out for anyone who is interested in the Walmart effect, which should be everyone, of course.
The book is by Walmart expert Prof. Nelson Lichtenstein who's been keeping a close and informed eye on the world's largest retailer for years.
In his latest chapter on how the Walmart phenomenon is changing our lives as workers and community members, Lichtenstein focuses on the "battle royal" that is brewing between Walmart and its "associates".
The new must-read is called The Retail Revolution, and it's been getting positive reviews by everyone but Walmart. One review in particular, by blogger Adam Turl, does a really good job of summing up the good professor's latest ideas and arguments about the Beast from Bentonville. Check it out.
Mike,
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart's picky approach to CSR not a true "commitment"
While watching the first day of Walmart's Green Business Summit live via webcast (my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail), I couldn't help but think of my cousin who only ate peanut butter sandwiches when we were kids.
Walmart used the first day of its much publicized "Green Summit" to make a "major announcement" that turned out to be a new website (big whoop), and the development of a new distribution centre in Balzac, Alberta, which is about 25 kms north of Calgary.
Walmart's top manager in Canada, David Cheesewright, took the occasion to frame the new "DC" as a model of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). He talked about the massive facility's energy efficient light bulbs and a bunch of other green gadgets, but answered with a flat "no" when asked if the world's retailer has a plan to reduce consumption.
Not surprisingly, Cheesewright failed to mention any of the other attributes of corporate social responsibility in revealing the Balzac project and attempting to wow the smattering of scribes who were at the summit. Those of us who believe that a serious commitment to CSR must include a demonstrated respect for human rights were left to wonder if Walmart will also be using the Balzac project to show the world that it's finally changed its ways when it comes to associates who choose to exercise their rights as workers.
If a corporation wants its CSR talk to be taken seriously, it can't approach social responsibility as some kind of a la cart experience. A real commitment to CSR is about eating the whole enchilada, even the guacamole you can't stand. For Walmart, the guacamole is labour rights, among other things.
Faced with the prospect of never growing past four feet tall, my once pale and chronically ill cousin eventually forced himself to broaden his dietary horizons. We're all glad he did.
I'm not sure what's on the menu at the Green Summit, but if I ever get my invitation, I think I'll order extra labour rights, hold the Cheesewright.
Mike
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart Greenwash splashes Games
As Walmart's travelling "Green Business Summit" gets ready to piggyback on the Olympics by setting up shop in Vancouver this week, do yourself a favour as a Canadian worker, conscientious consumer, and community member by grabbing some perspective on Walmart's supposed commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by going to http://www.walmartworkerscanada.ca/greenwash .
Better yet, if you're lucky enough to be in Vancouver for the games, pop your head into the summit and ask the world's largest corporation why its "commitment to our environment" doesn't include:
- A pledge to procure a significant amount of goods from local and regional suppliers which would lead to the creation of green jobs in Canada and cut carbon emissions?
And:
- What Walmart is doing to reduce the 20.8 million tones of greenhouse gasses it produces every year, besides pressuring its suppliers to be greener?
And while you're there ask Walmart if its new-found commitment to CSR includes:
- Recognizing labour rights as human rights?
And:
- Respecting the ability of workers to have a free and open conversation about their rights on the internet?
If you decide to go to Vancouver, and speak up at the summit, here's a word to the wise: don't bring your brand new Walmart bamboo shopping bag. That might be awkward.
Mike
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart changes game plan for Canada
Walmart is having second thoughts about its master plan for Canada, at least that’s what some of the analysts are saying. According to a recent industry report, the world’s largest retailer is throwing the breaks on its uber-aggressive vision for the Great White North, which involves throwing up a new Superstore behemoth every other month.
Make no mistake: Walmart is still determined to wipe out ma and pa and the rest of Canada’s domestic food retail industry, but the Arkansas-based corporation appears to be switching to a “stealthier” approach to total domination, one that involves quietly inserting a fresh food component to their existing stores.
If you’re tempted to give Walmart a gold CSR star for appearing to take its sprawl machine down a notch, hang on. According to the report, the environment – and Walmart’s supposed commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – have nothing to do with its apparent backpedaling on the original Superstore plan.
Walmart is finding out that Canadian retailers aren’t the pushovers they presumed, and Canadian shoppers aren’t as keen to cozy up to Superstores as the Arkansas-based corporation was banking on. In other words, Walmart seems to be less willing to plow its cash into new stores because it’s not steamrolling over the Canadian marketplace like it thought it would.
For most of us who live and work in Canada, the new Walmart strategy boils down to having fewer ginormous Supercentres in our backyards, but more pre-existing Walmart’s with full grocery stores. That could mean more of us will have to say adios to our neighbourhood butchers, bakers and hometown proud independents – and the essential economic and cultural contributions they all make to our communities – sooner rather than later.
Food for thought as Walmart’s travelling “Green Summit” tour gets ready to roll through Vancouver, where it will surely frame its new Superstore game plan as a proof of its new-found love for Mother Nature.
Mike
www.walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart offers dumped workers a tissue
It's been a rough few weeks for Sam's Club workers. First came the announcement that ten Sam's Club stores in the United States would close and the 1,500 employees who worked there could lose their jobs. Then, yesterday, Walmart announced they would be laying off 11,200 workers. Most of those being laid off demonstrate products in the stores.
Walmart's spokesperson made it clear that this wasn't about the economy, or the employees performance, rather, they were outsourcing the jobs to a company called Shopper Events who's only purpose is to demonstrate products in Walmart stores.
Walmart has suggested that the 10,000 employees they are firing can apply for a job with Shopper Events, who will be hiring roughly 10,000 employees to fill the gap left by the lay off. It sure sounds a lot like Walmart is asking 10,000 of their employees to reapply for their own jobs.
Workers report that Walmart called them into mass meetings where they were offered boxes of tissues and told they were no longer needed by the world's largest private employer.
The mass layoffs raise serious questions such as whether or not older and more senior workers were targeted for lay off. Why hasn’t Walmart made a clearer path to employment with Shopper Events for these 11,000 associates – which they clearly have the power to do? And for workers hired by the outsourced company, what kind of jobs will Shoppers Events provide to the new applicants? And, most startling of all, why is Walmart telling workers they must agree not to pursue age discrimination claims in order to qualify for severance pay?
All of this as Walmart execs sashay across North America touting the world's largest corporation as a model of corporate social responsibility. Doesn't CSR include a serious committment to human rights and the ethical treatment of workers? Old habits die hard, I guess.
Viva la resistance,
Viva la circle,
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart buys Haiti a coffee
Walmart’s PR machine just announced, to all kinds of fanfare, that the world’s largest corporation has generously donated 600K to the Haiti relief effort. For most us, 600 big ones isn’t chump change, but to Walmart and the Walton family, it’s walking around money.
Look at it this way: Walmart sold over $401,244,000,000 in merchandise in 2009 and raked in at least $13.6-billion in profits. So the 600K Walmart just flipped to the devastated Islanders represents roughly 0.004% of its cash-in for 2009. For the average Canadian, who took home less than $35,000 last year, that’s the cost of a large Tim Horton’s coffee. For the average Walmart worker, whose gross income is around $19,000, that’s about 75 cents, which is about the cost of …. well… nothing.
The $64,000 question is, of course, should people expect corporations to step up and do more in times of tremendous human need? It’s a good question. Maybe they should, especially when they emphasize their commitment to corporate social responsibility, as Walmart likes to do these days. But that’s for you to think about when you’re having your next double-double
Viva la resistance,
Viva la circle,
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
New documentary sheds light on Walmart effect
There's a new documentary out there, and it's a must see for anyone who is concerned about the impact of globalization and the effect of giant multinational corporations -- like Walmart -- on our jobs, communities and lives as citizens.
"You, me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule", by Canadian Film Maker Paul Manly, is getting a lot of attention and credit for its very astute critique of the new normal for everyday people and workers in the 21st century. The film -- chalk full of intriguing interviews and mesmerizing video footage -- is currently on tour at various venues across the country.
It's worth taking a couple/few minutes to check out the "You, me and the SPP" website, and jotting down the date, time and location of the free screeing in your community.
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart found guilty in Jonquiere
On September 18, Walmart found out you can stall until the cows come home, but eventually what’s true is true and what’s wrong is wrong, and when it comes to abusing the rights of its workers, what Walmart did to the workers at a store in Jonquiere, Quebec was very wrong.
When Walmart shut a store in Jonquiere, Quebec in 2005, shortly after workers there formed a union, the company claimed it wasn’t ant-union. It said the closure and mass termination of more than 150 workers was for “business reasons”.
Well, they might have bought that story down in Arkansas, but recently a Quebec arbitrator disagreed and found Walmart guilty of charges brought by the union that the layoff of the Jonquiere workers was in fact illegal.
You can read the decision yourself, but in conclusion what the arbitrator found was that Walmart had acted above the law by ignoring a section of the Quebec Labour Code that says once a union has been certified, you can’t change the working conditions until a collective agreement has been negotiated and is in place.
That never happened, because the day in 2005 the union received approval for first-contract negotiations to go to arbitration as provided under Quebec law — that same day Walmart announced it would have to to shut the store “for business reasons”.
Back then a majority of Canadians polled said they believed the real reason Walmart shut the store was because of the successful union drive ( Jonquiere was the only unionized Walmart in North America at the time). They weren’t the only ones. The Quebec Labour Board had the same suspicions — that the “business reasons” were the 150 unionized employees.
In September 2005,the board ruled Walmart's closure of the Jonquiere store was an illegal reprisal taken against the workers for engaging in union activity.
But who needs to listen to the Labour Board when you have more lawyers than the Jonquiere store had employees? So Walmart appealed the 2005 charges, just like it will probably appeal the latest arbitrator’s decision which confirmed what happened to the workers in 2005 was illegal.
As the president of UFCW Canada Local 503 (the local union that organized the Jonquiere workers) said following the latest ruling, Walmart would rather spend millions on lawyers than spend it to improve workers’ wages. That also goes for filing injunctions to stop a website from effectively communicating with those same workers.
An army of lawyers can stall things, but in the end it’s the Court of Public Opinion that counts. In 2005 Canadians knew what Walmart was up to when it shut Jonquiere. In 2009 the public also knows that the right of Freedom of Speech is worth far more than the “business reasons” lawyers would argue to stop it.
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
The real line
Walmart likes to say lots of feel-good things about their approach to unions. You often hear them say that they “support” and “respect” their associates’ freedom of association. They say that they are not “anti-union” – instead, they are “pro-associate.” They say that their employees have the right to independently choose whether they want to be part of a union, without being intimidated by anyone.
Recently, NPR had an interview with Nelson Lichtenstein, a historian who has just finished a new book on Walmart. He gained access to a rare video archive of Walmart meetings. One of these meetings featured a speech by John Tate, a former Walmart executive who was very influential in shaping the corporation’s approach to unions.
Lichtenstein describes the speech here:
"Well, Tate, this amazing speech he gave in the year 2004, kind of a valedictory in which he told you know 500 cheering Wal-Mart managers that, you know, I've been fighting unions all my life. Unions are bloodsucking institutions. Your job is to go out there and, you know, help me complete my life's work. This was genuine. It was emotional. He got a cheer. And it completely contradicted the official Wal-Mart line
You can see the video here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4620299
Doesn’t sound at all “anti-union” to me….
Stories like this show us that the “official Wal-Mart line” often obscures their hard-line anti-union agenda. Is their injunction against this website really about trademarks? Or is it more about frustrating our efforts to effectively communicate with workers?
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
"Open Communication" -- Walmart style
We are making such a racket with this campaign for one reason: we feel it is very important to protect our right to effectively and openly communicate online. We believe Walmart’s injunction threatens this right.
“Open communication” has, of course, been revolutionized by the internet – especially by sites like Wikipedia. On Wikipedia, anyone can edit a page’s information. However, information about each edit is stored and made publicly available. A few years back, a CalTech student created a program called WikiScanner, which uses this information in a user-friendly way. The scanner lets you enter the name of a corporation, and then it shows you all of the Wikipedia edits the corporation was responsible for.
The scanner tells us that people at Walmart HQ have been quite active in changing data on Walmart’s Wikipedia page.
Original Sentence: Wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores.
New Sentence: The average wage at Wal-Mart is almost double the federal minimum wage.
Original Sentence: As of 2004, about 70% of the products sold in Wal-Mart stores have at least a component manufactured in China.
New Sentence: Even today, though, Wal-Mart buys merchandise and services from more than 68,000 U.S suppliers and supports over 3.5 million supplier jobs in the United States.
Mmmmm can you smell the apple pie baking?
So Walmart is OK with open communication, so long as it likes the message. But when it doesn’t, the corporation is not afraid of bending the rules (Wikipedia discourages such self-interested editing) to make its official line the only line. Walmart’s attempt to prevent us from effectively communicating with workers is motivated by this same spirit. But because they can’t simply edit our page, like they do with Wikipedia, they are using their huge legal budget to try to shut us down in the courts.
Well we’re not going to let them!
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
CCLA weighs in on free speech fight
In case you missed last Saturday’s Toronto Star, here’s a must read for anyone who cares about the future of free speech on the internet: http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/687584
The opinion piece was written by Nathalie Des Rosiers, the General Counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), which is one of Canada’s foremost organizations on free speech issues.
According to Des Rosiers, “Walmart is misusing intellectual property laws”. She says that the purpose of good IP law is to “prevent commercial free-riders from exploiting the investments that businesses make in their products and marketing” and not to protect corporations from criticism.
Des Rosiers also points out that in the new globalized world multinational corporations are powerful actors that have an enormous impact on the lives of everyday people. In fact, some, like Walmart with net sales in excess of $400-billion per year, are bigger than a lot of governments.
The CCLA, through Des Rosiers, argues that parody and satire play a key role in creating and sustaining healthy democracies, and who or what is fair game for that type of humour must reflect the new power realities in our economy and society. “It makes no sense that citizens would be allowed to criticize fully their municipal, provincial and national leaders, using parody and humour, but be prevented from using humour to oppose Walmart’s practices.”
The CCLA raises some really important questions about the crucial role the internet is increasingly playing in determining the kind of world we live. If the internet is one of our main information sources, can we, as citizens in a democracy, really afford to let certain corporations use their fabulous wealth as some kind of veto on website content?
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Sponsorship
For those of you who haven’t heard about the Glenn Beck story from the States, here’s a quick recap:
Glenn Beck is a hardline conservative radio and television talk show host in the United States. He’s from that distinguished Rush Limbaugh/Ann Coulter school of media figures – the ones who really uphold their responsibility as journalists to shape a reasoned and intricate dialogue around political issues. Or something like that anyways.
Beck recently got himself into some hot water over a series of extreme comments he made about President Obama. He accused the President of not only having a “deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture” but of being a “racist.” This kind of defamation is nothing new for Beck. He had previously compared Al Gore’s work with young Americans to the creation of a new Hitler Youth.
Beck’s latest comments about the President, however, went too far. Some concerned citizens looked into the sponsorship behind Beck’s program – and guess who was a major sponsor? Our old friend Walmart. In the wake of this accusation, our friends at Wake Up Walmart began a campaign to pressure Walmart to withdraw its sponsorship of Beck. 14,000 people sent a message to Walmart through Wake Up Walmart, and their campaign enlisted the help of other activist groups as well.
And guess what happened? Walmart relented and withdrew their sponsorship.
This story shows us that even a corporate giant like Walmart can be forced to act in more responsible ways, if a group of concerned and committed citizens makes their opinion heard.
Beck, as he is currently on an “unplanned vacation,” could not be reached for comment. Let’s send Walmart’s injunction to join him on the island of absurdity.
MIke
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart: Cookie Monster
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Walmart continues to seize circles worldwide, this time going after the unlikeliest of circles: the Girl Scout cookie.
Hungry to gobble up the last scraps of Main Street charm, Walmart is planning to unveil knock-offs of two popular Girl Guide cookies: the Thin Mint and the Tagalong. Encroaching on this market will surely mean a financial struggle for the Girl Guides, who rely heavily on the sales of these cookies to fund their organization. The Girl Guides sell so many cookies precisely because they are unique: you cannot find these cookies anywhere else. Until now, that is.
And of course, all of this comes from the same company that preaches to us about the sanctity of intellectual property. Walmart’s injunction argues against using someone else’s idea for your “own commercial interests.” I guess this is just another example of the rules applying to everyone but Walmart itself.
Irony this absurd makes my head spin.
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Circle Injunction
Lately I have been going over Walmart’s injunction with the goal of picking my favourite passage. This is more difficult than it sounds. There are just so many great passages to pick from. I’ve always been partial to the paragraph that seems to say “we own the circle,” but the passage that suggests ownership of blue vests worldwide is pretty good too. In terms of sheer absurdity, though, you really can’t beat this one:
“The UFCW is now using Walmart’s Rebranded Indicia, in an attempt to springboard on Walmart’s reputation to further its own commercial interests and activities.” (paragraph 40)
Using Walmart’s reputation for our own interests? Which reputation is that? The one they got by failing to pay their employees a decent living wage? The reputation they earned by settling countless lawsuits for illegal labour practices? The reputation that came from closing down stores where workers had exercised their Charter right to freedom of association? The reputation they gained by making 13 billion dollars last year off of the hard work of its exploited ‘associates’? That reputation?
No thanks.
Over years of hard work, we have built our own reputation by helping workers understand and exercise their legal rights as workers. We help workers come together; we don’t drive them apart. The only ideas we springboard on are the simple Canadian concepts of justice, fairness and equality. Now that’s a way to make a reputation! Eh Walmart?
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Next steps
Since launching our campaign against Walmart’s injunction last week, things have been pretty wild around the office.
First, hits on our website started going up. Then our facebook group showed steady growth. Soon names were pouring onto our petition. We have been diligently forwarding on copies of your letters of support to Wal-mart’s offices. With all these letters, it must have been a busy week for them as well. Our apologies!
It wasn’t long before the Wall Street Journal ran the story and the Huffington Post did as well. Oh yeah, a little paper called the New York Times also featured the story in its business section this past Saturday.
Other activist groups are getting on board as well, including Walmart Watch and the other labour organizations. Check out how many names and comments are on the petition over at Wakeup Walmart – it’s got to rival War and Peace in length.
So from the grassroots to the major newsrooms of the world, people are talking and people are angry. Most importantly, people are sending a message. This message lets Walmart know that it is unacceptable to use their vast legal resources to curb effective freedom of speech online.
Thanks to everyone who looked at our website and sent a message to Walmart about their injunction attempt. We need your help to keep the momentum going on this campaign. Please share this page with your friends. It only takes a second and it will make a big difference.
Keep those names coming, so we can keep them busy down in Bentonville!
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
First Look
Everyone shared a bit of a chuckle a few weeks back when we heard the news: apparently Walmart owns the circle! This was news to all of us, so we gathered around to read the court injunction. For a legal document, it was surprisingly riveting. In fact, it had all the elements of a great story: a perfect villain (you know who), the underdog (the poorly treated Walmart associates) and a seemingly impossible quest (fighting their massive legal team). But it wasn’t all so dramatic, there were moments of genuine comedy in there as well – “Blue vests don’t exist outside of Walmart!”…“We own the circle!”… “Heck, we own ovals too!”
So even though we couldn’t help but laugh at some of their claims, the intent behind the injunction wasn’t so funny. Effective freedom of speech is under attack by the injunction. Our site helps to connect and inform Walmart workers. It lets them share their stories. Even though our site has been up for years, all of a sudden Walmart wants to shut it down. Why is Walmart suddenly so scared of people simply sharing information?
The UFCW has been standing up for Walmart workers’ rights for years. Our site has been gaining real recognition and momentum – surely why Walmart is all of a sudden so concerned about the integrity of trademark law. Their true motives are obvious. They are trying to prevent us from communicating effectively with those workers who we are trying to help.
It’s not easy to stare down Walmart. The world’s largest corporation has an army of lawyers and it is not afraid of sending them into battle. But we’ll keep standing our ground in the interests of everyone. OK, not everyone – Walmart’s shareholders and managers might not like it much – but PRETTY MUCH everyone.
You can help out by sending a letter, and by sending this link to your friends. Check back for more updates soon.
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
Walmart Free Speech Campaign: Eight more months of fun!
Good news folks: the SAVE the CIRCLE campaign is good for at least EIGHT more months of fun!
We just found out that Walmart, the world’s biggest baby and retailer, won’t have its day in court until Sept. 7, 2010, giving the Free Speech campaign a full 33 additional weeks to keep building support and poking fun at Walmart and its over-the-top claim to the circle.
Walmart will have four days in the fall – September 7, 8, 10 and 13 – to try to convince the Quebec Superior Court to force walmartworkerscanada.ca to change all of the things – like circles, the colour blue, and the words “dignity” and “respect” – that Walmart doesn’t like. But, until then, the comedy sky is the limit, and we’ll be riding the circle train to the moon.
If you liked the 2009 campaign, with its fake newscasts, prank emails, Walmart Baby, and Circle Grinch, you’re gonna love the 2010 version.
Stay tuned.
Viva la resistance,
Viva la circle,
Mike
walmartworkerscanada.ca
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