Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Sues Union in Florida

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is no stranger to controversy, especially when it involved labor unions. Lately though, grocery worker unions have been targeting the store, causing disruptive rallies the retail giant seeks to curtail through litigation.

Wal-Mart has a long and complicated history when it comes to unions. Despite the prevalence of unions in many states over the years, Wal-Mart has largely been able to keep them at bay, avoiding their intrusion into the firm and avoiding the costs associated with unions. As the firm continues to grow though, the discord with unions grows with it.

The lawsuit filed on Friday in Orange County, Florida state court seeks “to help protect our customers and associates from further disruptive tactics associated with their continued, illegal trespassing,” Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said. The lawsuit itself is being debated by both sides, with Wal-Mart largely describing it as a right over private property, while defendants alleges its merely the actions of a corporate giant seeking to muzzle their critics.

“This is another attempt on Wal-Mart’s behalf of … silencing their employees and also the communities that support them,” Denise Diaz, executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice Corp and a defendant named in the suit, said before reviewing the documents. “Rather than creating good jobs with steady hours and affordable healthcare, Walmart’s pattern is to focus its energies on infringing on our freedom of speech,” the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), also a defendant, said in a statement.

In the suit, Wal-Mart alleges that the defendants violated Florida law through coordinated, statewide acts of trespass in several Walmart stores over the last eight months. It has asked the court for a permanent injunction against such protest activities, which it said included everything from picketing to impromptu “flash mobs.” In the lawsuit Wal-Mart cited an example where a group of protesters projected a video promoting OUR Walmart on the side of a store in Orlando and passing out literature inside that store in July, 2012.

Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the UFCW in November of 2012, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer said were unlawful attempts to disrupt its business in several states including protests that were planned for Black Friday, the busy shopping day right after Thanksgiving. In January, labor groups said that they would stop much of their picketing against the chain, while still trying to push the company to improve working conditions.

Wal-Mart spokesman Fogelman further added that the firm has not ruled out lawsuits in other states. This is surely not the end of Wal-Mart’s woes with unions. If successful though, the firm will gain a major upper hand in the Florida market by continuing to keep unions out of their stores.