Oct 16 2012
Walmart Protests Spread, As Workers Threaten to Strike on Black Friday
Recent protests at Walmart stores have shed new light on the mistreatment of Walmart workers in more than 5000 stores across America. Walmart, the nation’s largest employer has more than 2 million workers on payroll, comprising a massive 2% of the US GDP.
On October 4th, more than sixty Walmart workers organized a walkout from nine different stores across California. Since then, Walmart workers across the nation have followed with their own protests. On October 10th, workers staged walkouts in states such as Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. On the same day, about a hundred current and former workers met outside an annual Walmart investor meeting Bentonville, Arkansas. The protests are organized primarily by the group Organization United for Respect or OURWalmart.
The demonstrators are demanding better wages, stable and improved working conditions and less retaliation from management when speaking out. Colby Harris, a Walmart worker from Texas has not seen his wage increase from $8.90 an hour over the last three years. Many people claim that not only are wages stagnant, but that Walmart engages in wage theft and that overtime pay is not always honored.
Activists are scheduling an ultimatum for their grievances. Unless several of their listed demands are met, organizers are planning to walk out on Black Friday, America’s busiest shopping day of the year.
In light of the recent demonstrations, a memo was handed down by the management to salaried Walmart workers, giving advice as to how to deal with unions and organized demonstrations. The memo states: “As you know, activists or union organizers have been trying for years to stop our Company’s growth and to damage our relationship with our customers and members.”
While the hundred protestors who have recently walked out seems tiny in relation to the 2 million strong Walmart workforce, actions like these have worked in the past; in 2006, worker wages increased in 700 stores due to social and political protests against the company.
Walmart has had a long history of abusing workers rights. Workers claim that the company bullies them by reminding them that they can be fired and replaced at a whim. Hours are not regular and change sporadically, forcing workers to adapt to an unpredictable schedule. Other workers do not even get enough hours to work.
GUESTS: Nelson Lichtenstein, author of The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business and the MacArthur Foundation chair in history at the University of California, Santa Barbara and director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy,
Click here to read Nelson Lichtenstein’s article about the Walmart Walkout.
3 Responses to “Walmart Protests Spread, As Workers Threaten to Strike on Black Friday”
I am a walmart employee and it is true that overtime is not honored even when management promises that we can keep the extra time for working on our off days we are made to cut the time by taking long lunches or another day off during the week. We also rarely get to keep the extra holiday pay, we normally are made to take another day off during the holiday week. We are also treated like robots with outrageous amounts of work to do for single person and threatened with write ups if the work isnt done in the alotted time. A personal expierience I have with the company is my significant other was hired at the store I work in and he was hired at under our states minimum wage rate but because he works overnight he gets another dollar per hour.
I too work for Walmart, over 11 years now.
We had “Union” people walking around in front of our store last week for about an hour.
But like when the UFCW pickets new food stores going up..it is not even union people out there. And you can tell by all the people holding the signs wearing shirts that have the name and logo of their labor service on it.
How can a union expect people to want to join them if they don’t even support themselves and resort to hiring daily temp workers from a work today get paid today service to make you think that the “Union” is with you?
I also work at Walmart & can attest to the fact that we are given an outrageous amount of work to do in a small amount of time. & I was told that “we pretty much stick by those times”. I’d like to see management do the assigned amount of work in the assigned amount of time AND work like that for 6-8 hours a day!!! The owners just sit in their ivory towers & watch the money roll in while we break our backs & can’t even afford to feed our children & pay our bills!