Trader Joe’s Joins List Of Companies Combatting Unions Via Trademark Bullying

Grocery chain Trader Joe’s is not a complete stranger to Techdirt’s pages, and not for good reasons. The company, in the past, has shown itself to be perfectly willing to abuse trademark law to stop anything it doesn’t like, such as a man reselling its goods across borders where the company has no stores (perfectly legal) or someone setting up a site selling parody goods that tangentially reference its branding (also legal). But now Trader Joe’s has joined a small club of companies that has tried to use trademark law to bully its own employee’s union.

There is no lawsuit yet, but there is the threat of one, as Trader Joe’s has warned the new union its employees organized, all because the union’s store sells merchandise for the union.

The California-based grocer recently sent a letter to the union’s president, store worker Jamie Edwards, arguing that Trader Joe’s United’s T-shirts, mugs and tote bags are “likely to cause consumer confusion” and “dilute” the company’s brand. The letter, dated June 27 and obtained by HuffPost, referred specifically to items that say “Trader Joe’s United” and show the union’s logo, a fist clenching a box cutter.

Trader Joe’s claims that the items infringe on its trademarks, design and “trade dress” — a legal term that basically refers to a product’s general look and feel. The company said that if the union didn’t stop selling the merch, it might seek an injunction and monetary damages, including “all profits” the union has made from the items’ sale.

Best of luck to the company. I don’t think there’s a good chance that these claims would be winners in an actual trademark infringement trial, given the First Amendment implications, never mind the simple merits of any claims for brand dilution or public confusion. The store sits on the union’s website and all of the merch content is clearly in reference to the union, rather than the store itself. Furthermore, the union’s legal team seems entirely unimpressed by the threat.

The union’s lawyers fired back a letter of their own, accusing the company of bullying workers and trying to muzzle them through the threat of litigation. They said it was “disappointing, but not surprising” that the company would “seek to weaponize” trademark law against employees.

“This latest threat to the Union is just another in your continuing attack against labor,” the union’s attorneys wrote.

I imagine the threat was the point, just to see if the company could bully the union into taking down the merch. After all, the context of this is that the merch that gets sold directly funds the union’s coffers. And Trader Joe’s certainly doesn’t want its workers to have a greater war chest and, therefore, more power. Notably, this has been part of a standing campaign by the company to engage in suspected union-busting efforts.

Trader Joe’s United has accused the company of violating labor law on several occasions during the organizing drive – claims Trader Joe’s has denied. The union recently filed an unfair labor practice charge over the firing of Stephen Andrade, a Massachusetts worker the union claims was targeted because of his union support. 

In a different case, prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board are pursuing a complaint against the company alleging that it illegally removed union literature from the break room at a store in Minneapolis.

This is all very stupid on the part of Trader Joe’s. Yes, on the merits of its trademark threat, but also because on the list of companies who’s clientele might be hostile to a big company engaging in anti-union fuckery, Trader Joe’s would certainly be high up on my list.