Carrefour files suit against union; seeks $100 million in damages under RICO act - United Food and Commercial Workers Union

Discount Store News, August 7, 1989

Carrefour Files Suit Against Union

Seeks $100 Million in Damages Under RICO Act

PHILADELPHIA -- The legal war between Carrefour and the United Food and Commercial Workers union escalated last month when the French-owned hypermarket concern filed a Racketeer Influenced, Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit against the international union and its Philadelphia local.

In the civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, July 23, 1989, Carrefour seeks $100 million in damages. Federal law permits treble damages for losses stemming from racketeering.

In filing the lawsuit, Carrefour launched a preemptive strike against UFCW Local 1776. Two weeks previously, officials of the local had held a press conference to announce plans to file a similar suit of its own against Carrefour.

Local 1776 has been picketing Carrefour since the day it opened Feb. 2, 1988, urging shoppers to boycott Carrefour because it's a French-owned company.

Wendell W. Young III, president of Local 1776, called the lawsuit "ridiculous."

"The charges are nothing," said Young, who also is named as a defendant, along with his son, Wendell Young IV. "We've been squeaky clean. We never were violent on the picket line." At presstime, Local 1776 was considering whether to proceed with its lawsuit against Carrefour, Young said.

Ohio locals of the UFCW also have been picketing the Twin Valu hypermarket in Cleveland and Bigg's hypermarkets in Cincinnati, Young said. The UFCW opposes hypermarkets because they pay less than do unionized supermarkets, he said.

In its suit, filed under the federal law initially intended to fight organized crime figures, Carrefour charged the union with a pattern of illegal acts, such as Macing a Carrefour security guard and stealing a $1,200 video camera.

Carrefour stationed a trailer within sight of the main union picketing action, and security guards have been videotaping the pickets.

Carrefour declined to comment beyond issuing a brief statement in which it claimed that the international union "has been engaged in a criminal enterprise under Federal American law and racketeering activity."

The suit charges that since Carrefour's Philadelphia store opened in February 1988, it has been the subject of picketing, mass protests including demonstrations of 1,000 or more people on store property, destruction of property, assaults on employees, racial harassment of employees, throwing nails in the parking lot, blockages of customers seeking to enter the property, defamation and other conduct.

"A 1960 treaty between the United States and France guarantees that the rights and interests of companies of either country will not be `subjected to impairment...by any measure of a discriminatory character,'" Carrefour said.

"The International Food and Commercial Workers Union and its Philadelphia local have engaged in their conduct as a `Buy American' with a stated purpose to `Send them [Carrefour] back to France where they belong!" the statement reads.

In other legal actions, Carrefour filed a suit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in July 1988 in an attempt to keep the union from picketing on company property. This June, Carrefour failed to obtain a temporary restraining order to prevent the union from holding a rally of 1,000 union members in its parking lot, and Local 1776 mounted the protest as scheduled.

The suit is inactive, said Barry Elson, the lawyer who prepared and filed the suit.

In other legal skirmishing, Local 1776 has filed during the past 12 months two sets of unfair labor practices complaints with the National Labor Relations Board over the issue of Carrefour's alleged attempts to curtail and halt union picketing on its property. Carrefour filed counter complaints with the NLRB.

The issue of whether a union may picket and pass out leaflets on company property remains unresolved, said Peter Hirsch, Philadelphia regional manager of the NLRB.

PHOTO : Despite inclement weather, members of UFCW Local 1776 stand their ground while picketing

PHOTO : Carrefour's hypermarket in Philadelphia.