State investigation reveals that defense contractor helped Walmart spy on one of its workers' unions

Nov 30, 2015 10:01 GMT  ·  By

Court documents show that Walmart hired the services of Lockheed Martin to spy on its workers' union, just months before a planned protest in 2012.

The data came to light following a lawsuit filed by OUR (Organization United for Respect) Walmart, one of Walmart's workers' unions, after the retail company retaliated against some of the union's leaders.

These retaliations "allegedly" took place later in June 2013, after the group tried to set up another nationwide protest. The National Labor Relations Board also conducted a hearing on the matter during January 2015.

OUR Walmart's lawsuit against Walmart concluded in October this year, and the union made the court documents available to Bloomberg's staff.

Walmart employed cyber-intelligence gathering services from Lockheed

According to a 1,000-page report compiled by the National Labor Relations Board, Walmart subscribed to an intelligence-gathering service, provided by Lockheed Martin.

This service was used to monitor online social activities of persons involved in OUR Walmart's protest set for Black Friday 2012 and later June 2013.

The documents reveal that, besides 100 OUR Walmart employees that were considered active recruiters, Walmart also kept an eye on other key employees across the country.

Walmart employees: We are not ISIS

"We’re artists, not ISIS," said Favianna Rodriguez about Lockheed Martin's involvement in this affair. Mr. Rodriguez is a former Walmart employee turned artist, who participated in the protests. She is one of the people that Lockheed spied on and informed Walmart's staff about.

The company, which has always been opposed to unions, does not even recognize employees as employees, calling them "associates."

The most controversial incident concerns a June 2013 "Ride for Respect" protest, which involved Walmart employees traveling to the company's main headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, during a week-long shareholders meeting.

Because rumors appeared that the Occupy Movement would lend a helping hand, Walmart called the FBI at one point, but the Bureau refused to hand over documents about their involvement to the National Labor Relations Board investigation.

The protest failed, Walmart quietly dispatched workers that arrived in Bentonville in rented buses, and then in the weeks following the Ride for Respect action, it disciplined over 70 "associates" that participated in the protest caravan. 20 employees were fired following this incident.

The Ride for Respect protest sparked the National Labor Relations Board investigation and the subsequent lawsuit.