Walmart Strikers Arrested in SoCal Civil Disobedience (just 50 nationwide says Walmart my ass!)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: The Nation

Josh Eidelson

3:30 PM: Civil disobedience is underway now in Paramount, outside Los Angeles, where organizers say 1,500 workers and supporters are demonstrating against retaliation. Nine people have been arrested for sitting in the street on Lakewood Boulevard, including three striking Walmart retail workers from area stores: Charlene Fletcher and William Fletcher from Duarte, and Martha Sellers from Paramount. (William Fletcher and I appeared on Democracy Now on Wednesday.)

This was the latest and largest of a series of Black Friday rallies in cities including Lancaster, Texas; San Leandro, California; Quincy, Massachusetts; Miami, Florida; and Hanover, Maryland. Organizers say they expect to exceed their promise of 1,000 total protests.

2:35 PM: According to a spokesperson for Making Change at Walmart, a group tied to the United Food & Commerical Workers union, hundreds of Walmart retail workers have now gone on strike. He added that there are Black Friday strikers in at least 100 cities and protests in 46 states. The spokesperson accused Walmart of making up numbers to minimize the strike, and said that it will take time to tally more exact figures because many strikers are walking off the job on their own in stores that haven't seen past OUR Walmart actions. He reiterated the group's position that the strike is legally protected, and pledged support for any workers who face illegal retaliation for participating.

2:15 PM: In an 8:42 AM statement, Walmart declared it had "reported its best ever Black Friday events," including "larger crowds than last year and a huge response to its first-ever one-hour guarantee on key electronic items." Walmart US President Bill Simon wrote that "Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates," and offered an "estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide. In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year." The statement also touted Walmart's 10 percent employee discount and "an additional 10 percent discount on an entire basket of goods" for workers who showed up on Black Friday.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/171430/black-friday-begins-early-walmart-workers-already-striking-least-seven-states#

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Demonstrators protest Wal-Mart in Boynton Beach, Fla., Friday, Nov 23, 2012. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

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[leftyohiolib]

1. yea!!! for the brave workers of walmart

[itsrobert]

2. What does the number mean

"1,500 workers and supporters"

It is it 1500 worker plus additional supporters. Or is it 1500 workers to include supporters? Could it be 10 employees and 1490 supporters?

The story is not really clear.

[Doremus]

3. K&R

[SoapBox]

4. We were JUST now discussing this...

Here is our take...DON'T do anything that is "illegal"...if you get arrested making your "statement", that's the end of you and you protesting.

SO, we came up with this!

Get cars into the parking lots...FILL them up, so that there is no parking available. And/or, if needed, get others to just drive really, really, REALLY sloooooooow through parking lots....stop and pair car by car, to just bring the lots to a complete STOP.

THAT hopefully, would discourage folks from trying to go in and shop.

You also need folks out with the shirts, signs and chants too but, for us, when a lot is virtually full anyplace, we just leave and go some place else.

Just for thought.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. Is it true that *71 on any phone in Walmart is their PA system

keep seeing tweets about that.

[longship]

8. Over the PA: "Paging Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard"

Then give your message.

Gets everybody's attention quickly.

[pennylane100]

9. That is a really great idea for those of us who want to help

Just staying away from their stores is not enough to make a difference but if we could arrange a parking lot party and fill up all the spaces that would at least make a statement.

[progressoid]

6. Solidarity!

[limpyhobbler]

7. k/r

[PuraVidaDreamin]

10. How's about we post and count 'em here

I'll go first.

My mom is in the front row here in Falmouth, Ma


http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/headlines/2012/11/23/local-activist-join-walmart-protest

[csziggy]

11. SIL works at Wal Mart - they are a repressvie company

She's afraid to put any political or religious comments at all on any of her social media sites -if another Wal Mart "associate" saw them and reported them she could be fired. She's worked for Wal Mart for about 30 years and cannot afford to lose her job.

She used to tell us about her bad experiences at work. Now she doesn't talk about work at all. She just toughs it out. Thanksgiving Day she worked from 5 AM to 10 in order to get her hours for the week. Because she worked on the holiday she can get discounts on certain days in December. The explanation of how that works was arcane and made no sense to me.

If she wasn't completely dependent on her Wal Mart job in a (very red) county with very high unemployment, she might have been willing to join the protests. She just cannot afford to do it - that is probably true of more than 90% of Wal Mart employees.

I applaud the ones who are brave enough to make a stand.

[SoapBox]

12. Ditto to those brave ones.

And your SIL...sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do.