Solidarity! Walmart Workers’ Black Friday Strike Gets Back-up from CREDO [View all]
AlterNet /
By Lynn Stuart Parramore
Solidarity! Walmart Workers Black Friday Strike Gets Back-up from CREDO
Support for workers grows as the world's largest retailer launches intimidation campaign.
November 15, 2012 |
Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, is just around the corner. But Walmart employees are planning to strike across the country and disrupt business as usual.
Workers have had it with low wages, crappy benefits, unreliable work schedules, and being forced to live on food stamps and Medicaid to survive. And they have been making their feelings known in protest actions during recent months. They are also sick and tired of retaliation and intimidation from management. On Wednesday, a former Walmart worker found himself handcuffed when he tried to talk to employees about the Black Friday strike.
Instead of moving towards the enhancement of the workplace, the motivation of hard-working employees, and supporting fairness and safety on the job, Walmart has persistently threatened activists, intimidated workers, and set its powerful muscle against any attempt on the part of employees challenge the status quo. Walmarts response to the Black Friday strikes is to kick-off shopping earlier this year, opening stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Americans are invited to rush from the family table and avoid the strikes.
CREDO Action, a network of progressive activists born out of virtual network operator CREDO Mobile, has announced its solidarity with Walmart workers by starting a campaign to pressure board chairman Rob Walton to meet with striking workers and hear their demands for better pay and decent working conditions. So far, CREDO's petition has gathered by over 80,000 signatures . ...................(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.alternet.org/labor/solidarity-walmart-workers-black-friday-strike-gets-back-credo