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Why Direct Action Is Working for Walmart’s Workers
Monday, October 22nd, 2012The Indypendent
By: Jake Olzen
The nation’s largest retailer — Walmart — is in the throes of a bold movement for worker justice. The company has faced a number of separate strikes in less than a month and, rather than its typical retaliatory response of firing workers, Walmart is backing down and conceding to some demands.
Workers raised the stakes last week when more than 200 striking workers showed up at Walmart’s global headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, as executives met for its annual financial analyst meeting on October 10. The retail associates — from 28 Walmart stores in 12 states, according to Democracy Now! — walked off their jobs the day before as labor organizers began running ads in Arkansas newspapers supporting Walmart workers.
A Walmart memo leaked to Huffington Post over the weekend confirms the seriousness with which the company is viewing the strikes, revealing how powerful organized labor can be when it taps into strong community support, utilizes social networks, and engages in direct action.
Also joining Walmart’s striking retail workers in this historic struggle were Walmart’s warehouse workers from Illinois and California whose successful strike for better conditions and wages started a nationwide wave, putting visible pressure for change on how Walmart treats its workers.
Walmart Warehouse Controversy: Workers Forced To Live in Foreclosed Homes, Tents In The Woods
Friday, October 19th, 2012Huffington Post
Christina Wilkie
New details emerged Thursday about the living conditions endured by workers at a Walmart support warehouse in Elwood, Ill. who went on strike last month to protest their poor working conditions and alleged retaliation by management.
In a new piece by The Guardian, warehouse worker Phillip Bailey explains how he sleeps in a Catholic hostel in Joliet, Ill., after a long day of loading and unloading hundreds of boxes bound for Walmart stores.
Another worker, Mike Compton, says he regularly sleeps in foreclosed homes, explaining, “I found one abandoned house that had working electricity still. And a fridge.”
A third warehouse worker, Bailey said, was forced to live in the woods. “He just set up a tent in there for a few weeks.” Temperatures in Northern Illinois during the winter average 22 degrees Farenheidt, making situations like these potentially deadly.
The dire conditions in which the workers live are compounded by the fact that their jobs working for the logistics company Roadlink Workforce Solutions, moving goods on their way to Walmarts nationwide, are physically taxing, perpetually part-time, and often pay near minimum wage. Compton told the Guardian that if he were to work every single week of the year, he might expect to make about $15,000. “It is not easy to get by,” he added.
Walmart warehouse workers declare victory
Sunday, October 7th, 2012Newstips
Curtis Black
Striking warehouse workers at Walmart’s distribution center near Joliet have won an agreement for an end to retaliation against employees protesting working conditions, and are returning to work with full pay for the three weeks they were out, Warehouse Workers for Justice reports.
“We forced the company to respect our rights,” said striker Ted Ledwa. “We showed that when workers are united, we can stand up to the biggest corporations in the world and win.”
Members of the Warehouse Workers Organizing Committee walked out September 15 to protest the firing by the Roadlink employment agency of a plaintiff in a new lawsuit – the sixth filed against Walmart subcontrators in Elwood, Illinois – charging wage theft. They won widespread support.
Last Monday, strikers and their supporters shut down the Elwood warehouse – Walmart’s largest distribution center on the continent – with hundreds rallying as clergy and community and labor leaders blocked the road. On Friday, strikers delivered a letter demanding an end to retaliation and improvement of conditions signed by 100,000 supporters to the Walmart store in Presidential Towers.
Walmart Warehouse Strikers to Return to Work with Full Back Pay
Saturday, October 6th, 2012Warehouse Workers for Justice Press Release
In an historic victory, all striking Roadlink workers at Walmart’s Elwood warehouse have won their principal demand for an end to illegal retaliation against workers protesting poor conditions. They will return to work with their full pay while they were out on strike. Workers will return to work and continue the fight for safe working conditions, fair pay for all hours worked and an end to discrimination.
During the 21 day strike, strikers have received a tremendous outpouring of support. On Oct. 1st strikers and their supporters succeeded in shutting down Walmart’s largest distribution center in North America, while clergy, community and labor leaders blocked the road leading out of the warehouse to support workers on strike at the Walmart warehouse in Elwood, near Joliet. The rally brought Walmart’s distribution system into the public eye to protest unfair labor practices and other abuses in the nation’s largest inland port. On Oct. 5th, Walmart received a letter from over 100,000 supporters of striking workers at the Walmart warehouse demanding Walmart take responsibility for what is happening in their warehouse.
Striking Roadlink worker Ted Ledwa said, “With this victory, we forced the company to respect our rights. We showed that when workers are united we can stand up to the biggest corporations in the world and win”.
Warehouse workers labor under extreme temperatures, lifting thousands of boxes that can weigh up to 250lbs each. Workplace injuries are common; workers rarely earn a living wage or have any benefits.
Warehouse Workers for Justice is an Illinois worker center dedicated to fighting for quality jobs in the distribution industry that can sustain families and communities. The strikers are members of the Warehouse Worker Organizing Committee.
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Walmart Warehouse Workers Fight for the Future of Work
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012Truthout and Vocalo
Yana Kunichoff and Jesse Menendez
Workers responsible for moving an estimated $1 trillion worth of goods a year through the global economy are paid low wages, often denied breaks and basic protective gear, and are employed primarily through temp agencies.
Outside the largest Walmart distribution center in the country, moving the products of the world’s largest private employer, a group of striking workers are asking for small changes they say will make an immeasurable difference to their working conditions. Warehouse workers in Elwood, Illinois, have been on strike for more than two weeks, calling for the subcontractors that employ them on behalf of Walmart to provide shin pads and dust masks – and to listen to their grievances around working conditions.
Early this week, workers forced the warehouse to close early after more than 200 people rallied around the suburban distribution center. A planned civil disobedience action took a surprising turn for many of the assembled protesters when riot police equipped with a sound cannon came to arrest the 17 clergy and warehouse workers blocking a road near the distribution center.