This week's protests against Walmart continued Thursday with
54 workers and allies arrested in acts of civil disobedience. The effort to organize Walmart workers to fight back against their poor wages and working conditions also took a new form in an attempt to connect online and offline organizing.
A new website, Associate Voices, asks Walmart workers to share their stories and say if they'd like to see a Black Friday event organized at their store. This isn't just about venting—and it's drawing notice from Walmart headquarters:
... the campaign told Salon that the website would provide an outlet for workers too scared of retaliation to go public, and that seeing which stores generate anonymous outcry or outreach will help the group prioritize its efforts in the lead-up to this month’s “Black Friday” strike the day after Thanksgiving. It said it has also identified over a dozen visits to the site from Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters in Arkansas.
At the site, workers have left comments as
short and simple as "listen to employees" and as
specific as:
I want a guaranteed 40 hour workweek for all full-time associates; water and sunblock readily available for the cart pushers; tools, equipment, and supplies easily available; new motorized cart retrievers; adequate staffing; reliable scheduling; respect for seniority; time-off whenever it's needed; punching in and out for our breaks the way we do for our meal periods; a more reasonable and far less punitive attendance policy; and above all else, a living wage, higher and more frequent merit raises, and clear path to career advancement free of favoritism and based on merit and not personality tests.
While workers may be too intimidated—with good reason—to try to have these conversations on the job, the website could provide them with a way to see that other Walmart workers, maybe including some in their own stores, have the same complaints and are looking to connect with each other.