News

The Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)



September 4, 2009 Friday

Final Edition



Wal-Mart aims to silence workers; Corporation using trademark law in attempt to control website's content



BYLINE: Wayne Hanley, The Hamilton Spectator



SECTION: OPINION; Pg. A11





Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the world's largest and most influential corporation. If it were a country, Wal-Mart's economy would be the 26th largest in the world, placing it ahead of Argentina, Greece and Denmark.



Nearly one out of every hundred working North Americans works for Wal-Mart. As a corporation, its size, power and wealth has few -- if any -- rivals in history, and its actions affect us all.



On June 19, Wal-Mart filed an injunction request with the Quebec Superior Court against the website Walmart Workers Canada. Since 2003, this informational website has been owned and operated by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Canada (UFCW Canada). It was successful in its mandate to help Wal-Mart workers in Canada learn about their rights as workers and to share their stories about working for Wal-Mart.



Wal-Mart's injunction request seeks to use trademark law to impose a broad list of orders onto the website.



If successful, the site will be prohibited from using Wal-Mart's name and colour scheme, a parody of Wal-Mart's slogan, or any photograph of a person wearing any blue vest. The site would also have to abandon its established web address.



Most absurdly, they demand the site not use certain "oval, circular or semi-circular" designs.



Given Wal-Mart's unlimited legal budget and its long history of delaying justice through the courts, we have learned to take each Wal-Mart case with a grain of salt.



Our attorneys and legal experts are confident their case against our site is unfounded. So the site remains online, unchanged.



We believe this case is more concerned with the content of our message than with the integrity of Wal-Mart's trademarks.



Given Wal-Mart's famous anti-union ideology, it is not surprising they feel threatened by a website that tells workers how to form a union, among other things. We are concerned that, if the injunction is granted, it would impede our ability to effectively communicate with these workers.



Any attempt to censor an independent website should raise serious questions about the freedom of expression and freedom of association in the digital world. We cannot allow a corporation to determine what is and what is not appropriate content on a not-for-profit informational website. Citizens and working people are increasingly turning to the web to exercise their freedoms of expression and association.



This injunction threatens these rights, which are deeply rooted in Canadian law and culture.



The approach of Labour Day gives a special significance to this legal battle. On the first Monday of each September, we pay tribute to the battles workers have fought and to the gains they have made on history's shop floors and picket lines.



But these battles are far from over.



Working people today continue to fight for their collective rights, which are under constant assault in the globalized world.



This fight against Wal-Mart is one such battle. UFCW Canada hopes it will help keep the Internet a truly free place where workers can come together to exercise their freedom of expression and association without fear of reprisal.



If we can come together to defeat Wal-Mart's injunction, we will send a strong message to the corporate world: your most powerful and influential member tried to restrict our ability to effectively communicate with each other online and they failed.



If such a precedent is set, other corporations will be less likely to make further attempts to divide us online -- and next September we will have one more victory to celebrate.



Wayne Hanley is the national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Canada.



The website under threat of censorship is walmartworkerscanada.ca



Michelle Alioto

Sr. Communications Specialist

UFCW International Union

202-354-5147 (fax)

202-285-6323 (cell)

202-466-1526 (phone)

www.ufcw.org