As Nation Rallies against Abuse of Power, Calls for $15 an Hour, Full-Time Work at Walmart Sweep Country
29 November 2014 - 1:09AM
Business Wire
Walmart workers continue strikes in protest of
company’s disregard for their rights
***Follow the conversation and see photos at #WalmartStrikers,
@ChangeWalmart and blackfridayprotests.org.
UFCW:
MEDIA CALL WITH REPORTS FROM STRIKES AND PROTESTS: TODAY
at 11am ETRSVP/Call-in Info: Giovanna Vitale,
Giovanna.vitale@berlinrosen.com, 646.200.5334Speakers
Include: Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson,
striking Walmart workers, local protestors
Tens of thousands of Americans are protesting at 1,600 Walmart
stores across the country today, calling on the company to pay
associates a minimum of $15 an hour and provide full-time work. The
broad group says the country’s largest employer and the
Waltons—Walmart’s majority owners—are abusing their power and
hurting American families by allowing Walmart to violate workers’
rights. While the majority of Walmart workers are paid less than
$25,000 a year, Walmart brings in more the $16 billion in annual
profits; and the Walton family has built up nearly $150 billion in
wealth.
With protests already underway, Walmart workers—members of OUR
Walmart—are continuing a nationwide strike protesting the company’s
illegal retaliation against associates who speak out for better
jobs.
In Phoenix, Sandra Sok walked off the job Wednesday for the
first time and said: “Many of us are living in deep poverty and
going hungry because the Waltons won’t pay us a fair wage. When my
coworkers speak out about these issues, the company tries to
silence us. For all of my brothers and sisters who have experienced
illegal threats, I am on strike.” Sandy is paid only $400
every two weeks and has worked at Walmart
for nine years.
Reports from protests around the country include:
- Los Angeles: Walmart workers, on
strike to protest Walmart’s retaliation, and community members are
continuing a 24-hour fast outside a Walmart store in protest of the
hunger that Walmart and the Waltons are forcing onto many of their
families.
- Washington, DC: A live band is
gearing up to support striking workers outside the District’s new
Walmart, where a group of workers held a sit-down strike on
Wednesday. This is the first time that workers at the new store in
Washington and in neighboring Virginia are on strike.
- Albuquerque: A group of “Raging
Grannies” will sing to show their solidarity with workers.
- Denver: Santa Claus, his elves,
Walmart workers and hundreds of community supporters are preparing
to deliver a bag of coal to Walmart.
- North Bergen, New Jersey:
Members of the clergy are set to deliver a symbolic food bin to the
store while chanting “dignity, not charity.”
Walmart workers started walking off the job on Wednesday in
cities nationwide. Inspired by workers in Los Angeles who held the
first-ever sit down strike in company history, associates in
Washington, DC held a sit-down strike Wednesday at the new store on
H Street. Workers in Washington, DC and Virginia are on strike for
the first time and are joined by workers who walked off the job in
cities and towns nationwide.
"The Black Friday rallies and demonstrations represent a
dramatic escalation of the growing protest movement among employees
of America's largest private employer. But they also represent the
vanguard of a sharp challenge to the nation's widening economic
divide and the declining standard of living among the
majority of Americans," Peter Dreier, Distinguished Professor of
Politics at Occidental College, writes in the Huffington Post. "It
is sometimes difficult to recognize historical events as they
unfold, but it is likely that future generations will look at these
Walmart protests as a major turning point that helped move the
nation in a new direction, similar to the sit-down strikes among
Flint auto workers in 1937, the Woolworth lunch-counter sit-ins by
civil-rights activists in 1960, and the first Earth Day in 1970,
which jump-started the environmental movement."
“Our communities are suffering because Walmart won’t pay many of
our neighbors enough so they can fill their stomachs,” said Nicole
Ramirez from BAYAN – USA Pacific Northwest, an alliance of Filipino
organizations. “I am out here with other Filipino youth and
students supporting these brave Walmart workers who are on strike
for their right to speak out. Our community is calling for $15 an
hour and full-time work because we can’t let the Waltons abuse
their power and destroy American families any longer.”
Growing pressure on the company to raise pay and provide
full-time work comes as an increasing number of Americans and
Walmart workers point to OUR Walmart as making significant changes
at the country’s largest retailer. Since last Black Friday, the
company committed to raise wages for its lowest paid workers,
rolled out a new scheduling system that allows workers to sign up
for open shifts and improved protections for pregnant workers in
response to public calls from OUR Walmart. Workers at more than
2,200 Walmart stores nationwide have signed a petition calling on
Walmart and the Waltons to publicly commit to paying $15 an hour
and providing consistent, full-time hours.
The Walton family, which controls the Walmart empire, is the
richest family in the U.S.—with the wealth of 43% of American
families combined. While many Walmart workers are unable to feed
and clothe their families, the Walton family takes in $8.6 million
a day in Walmart dividends alone to build on its $150 billion in
wealth.
Walmart workers began speaking out last week about the severe
hunger issues that too many of them are facing because they can’t
afford groceries. A group of workers started sharing their
stories on Walmart Hunger Games Tumblr after reading about their
co-workers’ struggles in a new analysis about Walmart’s role in
reinforcing the hunger crisis in America.
For the past three years, Walmart workers have been raising
concerns about persistent understaffing at stores and its impact on
wasted food, un-stocked shelves, long check-out lines and lower
sales, noting that better jobs at Walmart will improve customers’
shopping experience and strengthen the company’s bottom line. The
company has reported losing up to $3 billion a year because its
shelves go un-stocked. Consumers, analysts, shoppers and workers
say that by improving jobs, Walmart can mend its reputation with
shoppers, grow the business and help workers support their
families.
UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of
helping Walmart employees as individuals or groups in their
dealings with Walmart over labor rights and standards and their
efforts to have Walmart publicly commit to adhere to labor rights
and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart
recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative
of its employees.
UFCWMarc Goumbri, 202-257-8771mgoumbri@ufcw.orgorJamie Way,
202-256-9974jway@ufcw.orgorGiovanna Vitale,
646-200-5334Giovanna.vitale@berlinrosen.com