Workers trying to engage in legal union organizing against the ganster octupus walmart were arrested by Pinkertons last week.
Today workers respond with a work stoppage. This work stoppage is notable because it is the first involving multiple locations in Walmart's history. Using Pinkertons changed the tone and in doing so Walmart showed it's hand. Workers now know Walmart is willing to murder them to keep out unions .
Today, for the first time in Walmart’s fifty-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass rally outside a Pico Rivera, CA store. This is the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world.
“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared…” Pico Rivera Walmart employee Evelin Cruz told Salon yesterday about her decision to join today’s strike. “But I think the time has come, so they take notice that these associates are tired of all the issues in the stores, all the management retaliating against you.” Rivera, a department manager, said her store is chronically understaffed: “They expect the work to be done, without having the people to do the job.”
Walmart is entirely union-free in North America, and has worked aggressively to stay that way. Today’s strike is an outgrowth of a year of organizing by OUR Walmart, an organization of Walmart workers. OUR Walmart is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, but hasn’t sought union recognition from Walmart; its members have campaigned for improvements in their local stores and converged at Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting.
H/T to JayRaye:
Warehouse Workers for Justice:
Warehouse Workers United
Our Walmart
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Walmart Workers on Strike for the Freedom to Speak Out!- Loads of photos from today
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