Archive for November 2012
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ITF Delivers Walmart Warning
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012LONDON, Nov. 21 — International Transport Workers’ Federation issued the following news release:
ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) ship inspectors have been visiting ships carrying Walmart cargoes this week to pass on warnings that the company may be experiencing industrial action in the run up to Christmas. The ITF is asking captains and companies working with Walmart to raise with it widespread concerns about the retail giant’s treatment of its US staff.
Industrial action is likely among Walmart workers on Friday November 23, which is known as ‘Black Friday’, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA.
The move by the global union federation is in support of five US organisations campaigning for justice for Walmart workers: Making Change at Walmart, OUR Walmart, UNI Global Union Walmart Alliance, Warehouse Workers United, and Warehouse Workers for Justice*. They charge the company with paying poverty wages and dragging down pay and work conditions.
ITF acting general secretary Steve Cotton commented: “Walmart is a major customer of the shipping industry, and we feel it is important that transport companies – with whom we strive to build the same kind of collaborative industrial relations we would like to see Walmart embrace – are aware of potential industrial disruption.”
Walmart Workers: Workload, Retaliation Increase in Illinois Warehouse as Black Friday Looms
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012Truth-out
Yana Kunichoff
With only three more days to go until Walmart workers around the country are expected to walk off the job on Black Friday, employees at one Walmart warehouse in Illinois say they are seeing more work and continued retaliation against organizers.
Four people from Elwood, Illinois were fired Monday following a weekend action aimed at one of the subcontractors that runs one of Walmart’s Elwood warehouses.
A delegation of community groups, along with warehouse workers, presented a petition to Schneider Logistics, the company that runs the warehouse, on Saturday.
The petition called for an end to wage theft, discrimination and illegal retaliation – all issues that initially led some Elwood workers to stage a 21-day walkout on September 15th.
Walkouts at Walmart
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012Newstips
Curtis Black
An unprecedent rolling strike wave hitting Wal-Marts across the country – started in September by warehouse workers in northern Illinois and southern California – will include walkouts by employees at a number of Chicago-area Wal-Marts on “Black Friday” this week, organizers say.
Meanwhile organizers working with temporary staffing agency workers charge Wal-Mart is evading the wage commitment it made when it entered Chicago two years ago by using temps to fill positions in its stores here. Chicago Workers Collaborative is backing staffing workers in Wal-Mart stores who recently filed a wage theft lawsuit against the company.
Worker group urges Black Friday Walmart boycott
Monday, November 19th, 2012Heral-News
Cindy Wojdyla Cain
JOLIET — A local workers’ rights group wants shoppers to boycott Walmart on Black Friday to send a message to the company about how it treats its employees.
Joliet-based Warehouse Workers for Justice’s “Black Friday Action” includes a rally in front of the Walmart at 2424 W. Jefferson St. The group will gather first at 8 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, 329 S. Ottawa St., and then head to the Walmart.
Walmart’s retail workers are having problems with “wages, hours, no promotions and no respect,” said WWJ community organizer Cindy Marble. The complaints are similar to ones that afflict warehouse workers, especially workers at warehouses that handle Walmart goods, Marble said.
Friday’s event also is designed to show support for Walmart employees who have been staging strikes around the country, she added.
The group said a high percentage of Walmart employees are on food stamps and government aid.
“So who’s really saving more and living better,” a WWJ flier asks.
Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg said “only a handful of associates, at a handful of stores scattered across the country” are participating in strikes.
Lundberg said in an email that Walmart has a low turnover rate, 250,000 employees have been working for the company for more than 10 years and 75 percent of the company’s managers started as hourly employees.
“The fact is, our pay and benefits plans are as good or better than our retail competitors, including those that are unionized,” Lundberg said. “If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be able to hire people and staff our stores. Last year alone, we received 5 million job applications.”
Lundberg also said the company expected only a tiny percentage of Walmart employees to take part in any Black Friday strikes.
“Of course we respect the rights of our associates to express their views but if they are scheduled to work, we expect them to show up and do their job. If they don’t, depending on the circumstances, there could be consequences.”
Marble said she understands some consumers think they need to shop at Walmart because of low prices, but those low prices come at the expense of warehouse and retail workers, she explained.
Walmart hit by walk-outs in build-up to ‘Black Friday’ disruptions
Thursday, November 15th, 2012The Guardian
Paul Harris
Strikes and protests aimed at disrupting the retail giant Walmart during next week’s Black Friday sales events began on Thursday with walk-outs at a number of stores and the promise of more actions in the lead-up to what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year.
The news comes amid controversy about plans by Walmart and other large chains to open on Thanksgiving evening, kicking off Black Friday a day early. It also comes as another strike has hit part of Walmart’s warehouse supply chain in southern California.
At least 30 workers from six different Seattle-area Walmarts have gone on strike, organisers and Walmart staff from the OUR Walmart group said. The group, which is not a union but has close ties with the labour movement, is seeking to protest what it says is low pay, too few hours and retaliation by managers against workers who speak out.