This week in the war on workers: Walmart loses $54 million wage theft lawsuit

Let’s call this what it is: theft. 

 Wal-Mart intentionally failed to pay hundreds of truck drivers in California the minimum wage for duties such as inspecting and washing their vehicles, a federal jury decided Wednesday, awarding the workers more than $54 million in damages and opening up the retail giant to additional penalties.

Seven jurors returned the verdict in a lawsuit that also accused the company of not properly paying drivers for layovers. Wal-Mart argued that truckers are paid for activities that include maintenance tasks and that they are not working during layovers.

That’s a lot of money, and while it’s great that the truck drivers will (maybe, eventually, after appeals) get their money, Walmart should pay a bigger price than paying what it should have to begin with.

● Abusive scheduling is a big problem for retail workers, and the holiday rush sure doesn’t make that any better.

● Speaking of which, fair scheduling could be labor's next big fight​.

● Your weekly (daily? hourly?) dose of doom:

As Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin – states that once were the stronghold of the nation’s industrial union movement – dropped into Donald Trump’s column on election night, one longtime union staff member told me that Trump’s victory was “an extinction-level event for American labor.”

He may be right.

● Minimum wage protests planned in 340 cities.

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