''Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Local 558 v Pepsi-Cola Canada Beverages (West) Ltd'', 2002 SCC 8, is a leading

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

decision on secondary picketing. The Court held that at common law, secondary picketing is legal so long as there is no criminal or tortious conduct.

Background

Employees of

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

("Pepsi"), organized by the

Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1937, the RWDSU represents about 60,000 workers in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to retail, grocery stores, p ...

, in Saskatchewan went on strike. Unlike many other provinces, Saskatchewan did not have any secondary picketing legislation. So as part of their strike, the employees picketed at retail stores that sold Pepsi products and the homes of Pepsi's management. Pepsi successfully applied for an

interlocutory Interlocutory is a legal term which can refer to an Court order, order, Sentence (law), sentence, decree, or Judgment (law), judgment, given in an intermediate stage between the commencement and conclusion of a cause of action, used to provide a ...

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

to prevent employees from picketing at the secondary locations. The employees appealed the injunction.

Ruling

The Court recognized picketing as freedom of expression, consistent with section 2(b) of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

''. Since the Court found picketing to be ingrained in the ''Charter'', they declined to limit picketing based on location. The Court felt that the limited financial and human resources of labour unions would prevent the unchecked spread of picketing beyond the primary parties, with limited resources they felt it was unlikely the union would picket a location which has no possible impact on their labour dispute. Pepsi had relied primarily on the

Court of Appeal for Ontario The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Ha ...

decision ''Hersees of Woodstock Ltd v Goldstein'' (1963), 2 OR 81 (CA), which held that all secondary picketing was illegal. However, the Supreme Court overturned the decision but expressly forbade the picketing of the management's homes. The Court's overall conclusion was that secondary picketing is legal so long as it is not tortious or criminal in nature and does not inflict "undue" hardship on the struck parties.

External links

* {{lexum-scc, 2002, 8 Supreme Court of Canada cases PepsiCo Protest tactics Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union 2002 in Canadian case law Canadian trade union case law Saskatchewan law

Background

Ruling

See also

External links