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Walmart Workers Calls for Fair Wages and Full-Time Work Sweep Across Country this Black Friday

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Tens of thousands of Americans protested at 1,600 Walmart stores across the country on November 28, Black Friday, and called 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 than $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 carried out 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 played 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 went on strike.
·         Albuquerque: A group of “Raging Grannies” sang to show their solidarity with workers.
·         Denver: Santa Claus, his elves, Walmart workers, and hundreds of community supporters delivered a bag of coal to Walmart.
·         North Bergen, New Jersey: Members of the clergy delivered a symbolic food bin to the store while chanting “dignity, not charity.”
Photos from all of the actions can be found here.
Walmart workers started walking off the job last 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 at the new store on H Street. Workers in Washington, DC and Virginia went on strike for the first time and were joined by workers who walked off the job in cities and towns nationwide.
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.
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.
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Sen. Warren & U.S. Rep. Miller Hear From Walmart Workers On Economic Insecurity And Income Inequality

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Walmart strikers Evelin Cruz and Cantare Davunt gave Senator Warren a green OUR Walmart bracelet that she wore while presiding over the vote that rejected the Keystone Pipeline. These bracelets are a symbol of courage for the Walmart workers who wear them.

Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congressman George Miller, and legislative experts held a congressional briefing entitled, Walmart and the Economic Insecurity of American Families, to hear from members of OUR Walmart on how the country’s largest employer is creating an economic crisis for working families in America.

“I was glad to join Walmart employees today to support efforts to push back against practices by Walmart and other big corporations that make it hard for working families to make ends meet,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “Hardworking men and women across the country want a fighting chance to build a future for themselves and their families. We need to give workers this chance by raising the minimum wage, providing some basic fairness in scheduling, and fighting for equal pay for equal work.”

“Walmart’s shoddy business model is singlehandedly wreaking havoc on American families across the country and making it impossible for hundreds of thousands of workers to have a shot at the American Dream,” said Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.), senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “America’s workers and their families deserve better than they’re getting from Walmart today—they deserve higher wages, less erratic schedules, and equal pay regardless of their gender. The courage of Walmart workers who are engaged in sit-down strikes to protest the company’s illegal silencing of workers who have called for better jobs and full-time work is essential to creating real change.”

At the briefing, Walmart workers discussed how Walmart’s low pay, manipulation of scheduling and illegal threats to workers have created a new norm across industries that makes it nearly impossible for workers to hold down second jobs, arrange child care, go to school or manage health conditions.

“With Walmart’s low-wages and hectic schedules, too many Walmart workers are left on the edge of poverty. But all too often when we stand up, Walmart tries to silence us. Just days before I planned to participate in our first sit-down strike in LA, Walmart fired me for speaking up for better wages and hours, but I’m still fighting today because my former colleagues like Fatmata Jabbie and Cantare Davunt deserve better,” said Evelin Cruz, former Walmart employee and OUR Walmart member.

The briefing highlighted the Schedules That Work Act, Fair Minimum Wage Act and Paycheck Fairness Act—legislation that would force the company to improve its pay and hours for hundreds of thousands of American workers. Legislative experts including Carol Joyner of the Labor Project for Working Families, Amy Traub of Demos and Carrie Gleason of the Center for Popular Democracy joined the elected officials and Walmart associates on the panel to discuss the need for legislative action to set a new standard at the country’s largest employer.

The action from elected officials comes as an increasing number of Americans and Walmart workers point to OUR Walmart as making significant changes at the country’s largest retailer. Most recently, after public calls from OUR Walmart, the company committed to raise wages for its lowest paid workers and rolled out a new scheduling system that allows workers to sign up for open shifts. To date, workers at more than 2,100 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.

“In three short years, OUR Walmart has grown to a powerful, national network that is making big changes at the country’s largest employer,” said Cantare Davunt, a Walmart customer service manager and OUR Walmart member during the briefing today. “But more needs to be done. Legislative action would have a huge impact, but Walmart can lead the way now by adopting policies that give us the schedules and pay we need.”

The briefing comes before next week’s nationwide strikes on Black Friday. Tens of thousands of workers, teachers, voters, clergy, environmentalists, and civil rights leaders will join workers at more than 1,600 protests speaking out against retaliation and calling on Walmart and the Walton family to publicly commit to $15 an hour and provide full-time work.