Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed trespassing claims against a grocery workers union and several other groups that have protested on the grounds of its stores in Florida.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, its subsidiary OUR Walmart and several other defendants broke state law by trespassing and picketing at several Wal-Mart stores during the past eight months, according to the lawsuit. Wal-Mart employees in the U.S. are not unionized, but the store has still attracted the ire of labor groups lobbying for higher pay, better benefits and steady hours.

Representatives for the discount retailer say that the company filed the lawsuit after multiple warnings, and that it is intended to protect customers and other employees from “further disruptive tactics associated with [the] continued, illegal trespassing.”

These tactics allegedly include passing out reading materials to customers inside one Orlando Wal-Mart and later handing “a rotten pumpkin painted in support of OUR Walmart” to the store manager of the same location.

The defendants in the suit, however, accuse Wal-Mart of trying to silence its workers. “Rather than creating good jobs with steady hours and affordable healthcare, Walmart's pattern is to focus its energies on infringing on our freedom of speech,” OUR Walmart said in a statement to Reuters.

Wal-Mart is seeking a court order preventing the defendants from demonstrating at its stores or confronting employees or customers.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed trespassing claims against a grocery workers union and several other groups that have protested on the grounds of its stores in Florida.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, its subsidiary OUR Walmart and several other defendants broke state law by trespassing and picketing at several Wal-Mart stores during the past eight months, according to the lawsuit. Wal-Mart employees in the U.S. are not unionized, but the store has still attracted the ire of labor groups lobbying for higher pay, better benefits and steady hours.

Representatives for the discount retailer say that the company filed the lawsuit after multiple warnings, and that it is intended to protect customers and other employees from “further disruptive tactics associated with [the] continued, illegal trespassing.”

These tactics allegedly include passing out reading materials to customers inside one Orlando Wal-Mart and later handing “a rotten pumpkin painted in support of OUR Walmart” to the store manager of the same location.

The defendants in the suit, however, accuse Wal-Mart of trying to silence its workers. “Rather than creating good jobs with steady hours and affordable healthcare, Walmart's pattern is to focus its energies on infringing on our freedom of speech,” OUR Walmart said in a statement to Reuters.

Wal-Mart is seeking a court order preventing the defendants from demonstrating at its stores or confronting employees or customers.

For more InsideCounsel coverage of unions and other labor issues, see:

D.C. Circuit rules recess appointments unconstitutional

Former hotel owner sues Marriott, claims labor conspiracy

NYC fast food workers walk off the job, seek to unionize

Michigan governor asks high court to rule on right-to-work

NLRB cannot force companies to bargain in face of clear impasse

7th Circuit upholds constitutionality of controversial Wisconsin union law