The day after Thanksgiving (“Black Friday”) in the United States is an important shopping day for retail stores. Last year on Black Friday, Walmart workers organized by OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect) went on strike to demand living wages, respectful working conditions and no retaliation for speaking out.
This year Walmart workers will walk off the job again on Black Friday as they and their supporters demonstrate outside Walmart stores all over the U.S. Liberation News readers can find a nearby Walmart protest by visiting this website.
This year’s Black Friday actions take place against the backdrop of legal setbacks for the retail giant. The National Labor Relations Board recently decided that it will prosecute Walmart for labor rights violations for firing and retaliating against striking workers and those who have spoken up about the working conditions at Walmart. The NLRB’s decision to pursue the case shows that workers’ actions over the past few years have had a significant impact. Walmart also lost a case in Washington state in September.
According the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which backs OUR Walmart: “In response to last year’s Black Friday actions, Walmart filed a lawsuit in Washington state court against OUR Walmart and its supporters alleging trespass and requesting a court order to prohibit future OUR Walmart actions inside and outside of Walmart stores.
“OUR Walmart fought the lawsuit and successfully persuaded the Washington judge to dismiss it because Walmart’s state court lawsuit violated federal labor law that requires Walmart to present its issues only to the NLRB. Walmarthad filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB prior to filing its lawsuit.”
Workers learn how to apply for welfare
On top of these legal setbacks for Walmart, the company has been in the media spotlight for promoting a holiday food drive for its own employees, many of whom are paid under $9 an hour. Workers at Walmart are often forced to rely on public assistance—for which Walmart kindly takes the time to train workers how to apply. This would be a slap in the face for workers in any company, but to add insult to injury, Walmart is the largest employer and one of the most profitable companies in the United States. It is currently at the top of the Fortune 500 and consistently rakes in billions in profit every year.
On top of paying low wages to its own retail workers in the United States, Walmart also profits from the poverty wages of countries like Bangladesh, where even by inspections funded by the company itself many factories continue to fail audits in the wake of the tragedy of the factory collapse that left scores of mostly young, female workers dead in April. This highlights the need for solidarity between workers in the United States and those in Bangladesh and other nations where rich corporations go to pay the lowest possible wages.
