story by Kim Souza
ksouza@thecitywire.com
Wal-Mart was a granted a temporary restraining order against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and its affiliate OUR Walmart by a Benton County Circuit Court Judge late Monday (June 3).
More than 100 representatives from OUR Wal-Mart and the UFCW made their way to Bentonville this week to stand up for what they say are needed changes within the retailer’s employment practices.The group includes several Wal-Mart employees who are on strike this week.
They peacefully demonstrated outside Wal-Mart’s home office in Bentonville early Monday morning, but they will not be allowed to disrupt the business in Wal-Mart Stores, according to the order.
The restraining order excludes Wal-Mart employees and is valid until an evidentiary hearing can be held on Friday (June 7), according to Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg, who spoke with The City Wire about the filing.
“We are pleased by the court's ruling preventing the union activists from further illegally trespassing on our property in Arkansas. We look forward to continuing the process on Friday morning,” Lundberg said.
He said many of the retailer’s employees have raised concerns about the ongoing demonstrations being staged by the union and their activists.
“They (union activists) have ignored all of the previous requests to stop trespassing at our stores – even requests from police. We are standing up for the rights of our associates and customers, as well as our own private property rights and have asked a judge to order these non-associate union activists to stop trespassing on our property,” Lundberg noted in an company statement.
Wal-Mart said this legal action is an attempt to prevent disruptions to its business, recalling an incident that occurred Oct. 10 in the Rogers Walmart Store No. 1. Derek Fouts, a customer service manager at Rogers store, told The City Wire that more than 100 protestors from the aforementioned 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 the 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 putting the merchandise back 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 created more work and an uncomfortable situation for those employees in the Rogers store.
“While we respect the rights of people with differing opinions to express those opinions, what the union is doing clearly goes beyond what the law allows. No reasonable person thinks it’s ok to walk into a business and try to disrupt it by frightening customers and disrespecting the people working there,“ Lundberg noted.
In response the restraining order, Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization of Women (NOW), said this is Wal-Mart’s latest attempt to silence the voices that are calling for real change at the nation’s larger employer.
“Instead of listening to its employees and the communities that make the company successful, Walmart – a company with billions in profits and all the lawyers it could ever need — is attacking working families and community groups ... shame on Wal-Mart."
0’Neill plans to join the group in Bentonville on Wednesday to support OUR Walmart members like Amy Stinnett, a single mother working as a service desk associate at Walmart in Placerville, Calif.
"OUR Walmart is committed to helping Wal-Mart become a better company for associates, customers and shareholders. The concerns that we're raising about understaffing and stocking problems impact Wal-Mart's bottom line, and we want to be sure shareholders know what's really going on … We will continue to raise our voices this week in Bentonville, in our stores at home and until there is a real change of course at Wal-Mart," Stinnett noted in an email.