Workers on strike at Walmart-contracted warehouses need your support:

[Omaha Steve]

Take action here: http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/c/33/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4870

Walmart: Meet with your Warehouse Workers

Following months of extreme tension, high temperatures, and intense pressure in a major Walmart-contracted warehouse, courageous workers – without having a recognized union – went on strike this morning to protest retaliation by their warehouse employers. They are calling for safe working conditions and that Walmart take responsibility for working conditions in the warehouse.



To date, Walmart has ignored repeated requests for a meeting to discuss safer working conditions. Now, the workers are asking for our support. Sign the petition to Walmart executives demanding they meet with these workers.

On Monday, September 17, our signatures will be delivered by workers to executives at Walmart in Los Angeles following a six-day, 50-mile march by workers from their warehouses.
Dear Walmart CEO Mike Duke, Board of Directors and Walmart Executives:


As supporters of warehouse workers who move boxes of goods destined for Walmart stores across the U.S., we are asking Walmart executives to meet directly with the workers.

Marta injured her back because of the grueling pace inside the warehouses and now she is unable to work. Limber works under dangerous conditions, forced to use broken equipment and at risk of dehydration because of inadequate access to clean drinking water.

The work is unsafe, injuries are common, and the pay is so low workers cannot make ends meet. Right now, the temperatures in Riverside and San Bernardino top 100 degrees daily and inside the metal containers the temperature can get up to 120 degrees. There is little ventilation and the heat and pollutants workers inhale can make them vomit and bleed from the nose. Workers face intense retaliation from management if they say anything about the conditions.

Workers have tried several times to reach out to you, writing letters and using the channels that Walmart provides in its “Standards for Suppliers.” Even after filing official complaints about health and safety violations and notifying Walmart directly about illegal working conditions, you have ignored these workers. But this is not an isolated problem that will just go away: there are thousands of warehouse workers in Southern California, Chicago, New Jersey and elsewhere who labor to stock Walmart shelves – all facing similar conditions.

We, who have signed below, are asking you, Walmart executives and Board members, to sit down with the workers to learn about their experience moving your goods and to figure out how you can ensure all of Walmart’s contractors and suppliers follow the law and live up to your own standards. Walmart, you set the standards for the industry; with a little good will, you can help ensure humane working conditions for thousands of warehouse workers in your supply chain.

Sincerely,

Supporters of the Warehouse Workers

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R!!!

Walmart Warehouse Workers Strike In California

Common Dreams
by Amy Traub
09.13.12 - 4:20 PM


[font color=gray]From Demos' Policy Shop blog:
{Photo: Warehouse Workers United}[/font]

Here’s one especially for the folks who, while vehemently attacking the Chicago teachers’ strike, insist that they generally love and support organized labor. Warehouse employees in southern California would greatly benefit from your outpouring of solidarity. Today, as they begin a 50-mile march from Inland Empire warehouses to Downtown Los Angeles, they could use everyone's support.

Yesterday about three dozen employees of a Southern California warehouse that stores goods for Walmart walked out on strike. According to their organization, Warehouse Workers United:

Workers face inadequate access to clean water, work under scorching heat that reaches well over 100 degrees, and have little access to basic healthcare, regular breaks, and properly functioning equipment. Their wages are low –$8 per hour and $250 a week, or $12,000 per year. Workplace injury is common.

But when workers tried to offer solutions to fix these abuses, they have been met with illegal threats and intimidation by management.

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