Walmart workers to strike in 15 cities tomorrow

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIr_LUtNeDF5EhqZekWEY7Zj6FL6zJXrnOok0o7_x-29EOzkS8o2MWKKRQsEgTmAcnx2GgboryAjSip4xoMMmKUCqp7_bxCuIGw8ugCO4q6__Kuy7xesee5TXQdMf6QLgOELCCtcFuzFT/s1600/walmart+real+wage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIr_LUtNeDF5EhqZekWEY7Zj6FL6zJXrnOok0o7_x-29EOzkS8o2MWKKRQsEgTmAcnx2GgboryAjSip4xoMMmKUCqp7_bxCuIGw8ugCO4q6__Kuy7xesee5TXQdMf6QLgOELCCtcFuzFT/s320/walmart+real+wage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Tomorrow is shaping up to be another big day of action among low-wage workers as Walmart employees prepare to mount widespread protests and walkouts. <a href="http://forrespect.org/" rel="nofollow">OUR Walmart</a> organizers are hoping the day of action will be the biggest since last year's <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2012/11/wal-mart-strikes-in-100-cities-46-states.html" rel="nofollow">Black Friday strike</a>. <br /><br />Josh Eidelson at <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/175995/protesting-activists-firings-walmart-workers-plan-biggest-mobilization-black-friday#"><em>The Nation</em> reports</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">This week’s rallies follow an August 22 civil disobedience action at which the campaign announced a Labor Day deadline for Walmart to raise its wages to at least $25,000 per year, and reverse the terminations of twenty workers who participated in a June strike.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Thursday’s actions will include a march through downtown Los Angeles to the site of a proposed Walmart in Chinatown, and a demonstration in Washington, DC, where all sides are awaiting word on whether Mayor Vince Gray will veto a bill (passed by City Council in July but formally sent to his desk last Friday) that would require “large retailers” like Walmart to pay employees at least $12.50 in total hourly compensation. Thursday actions are also planned for cities in the East, West, South and Midwest: Baton Rouge, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle.</blockquote>Walmart protests tomorrow follow strikes last week involving low-wage workers in the <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/08/LA-port-drivers-strike.html">port trucking</a> and <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/08/fast-food-strike-sweeps-naton.html">fast-food industries</a>. Walmart workers are fighting back against management retaliation against OUR Walmart supporters, and they are part of a growing movement to raise wages and standards for America's growing population that is trying to survive on poverty wages.<br /><br />Eidelson adds:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Thursday’s rallies will have the largest total turnout by Walmart employees, and the biggest overall number of participants, of any Walmart mobilization since the one-day November 23 strike last year, in which organizers say 400-some workers walked off the job and thousands of supporters turned out to support them. Since then, organizers say hundreds of workers took part in collective confrontations with local management over scheduling on April 24, and over a hundred participated in the longer June work stoppage, which included a week of protests in and around Walmart’s Arkansas hometown. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The OUR Walmart campaign has asked the <a href="http://nlrb.gov/" rel="nofollow">National Labor Relations Board</a>, whose pace and penalties labor has long charged are insufficient for protecting workers, to seek an injunction to more quickly address Walmart’s recent alleged retaliation.</blockquote>Last week, <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/08/la-port-strike-ends-with-return-to-work.html" rel="nofollow">port truck drivers staged a historic one-day strike</a> in their drive to become Teamsters and raise standards at the Port of Los Angeles. <br /><br />While corporations in retail and other low-paying industries are rolling in record profits, low-wage workers represent the fastest-growing segment of American workers and the country's expanding income gap. <br /><br /><a href="http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/" rel="nofollow">Making Change at Walmart</a> wrote in a <a href="http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/2013/09/03/walmart-workers-supporters-plan-for-largest-mobilization-since-black-friday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=walmart-workers-supporters-plan-for-largest-mobilization-since-black-friday" rel="nofollow">statement</a> yesterday:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Economists, labor market experts and others have been increasingly voicing concern about the growing income inequality and its impact on the economy. Walmart, the largest company on the Fortune 500 list, made $16 billion in profit last year, and the majority of owners of the company, the Waltons, have the combined wealth of nearly half of American families. Meanwhile, many Walmart workers continue to earn on average poverty wages of $8.81 an hour.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Rather than providing good jobs that American workers need and deserve, Walmart is trying to silence workers who are standing up with their co-workers to live better and spending its time and money trying to deny workers a decent day’s pay. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Since June, Walmart has illegally disciplined nearly 80 workers, including firing 20 worker-leaders. More than 100 Unfair Labor Practice charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart.  </blockquote>Not only do Walmart and other low-wage workers represent a growing part of the labor force, they represent a huge upsurge of collective action against corporate greed and the fight to save the middle class.<br /><br />Teamsters and supporters everywhere are encouraged to stand in solidarity with Walmart workers tomorrow. Visit the <a href="http://corporateactionnetwork.org/campaigns/stand-with-the-walmart-60" rel="nofollow">Corporate Action Network</a> website to find a protest in your area.<br /><br />SOLIDARITY!

fast food strike low wage workers our walmart port truck drivers Wal-Mart walmart strikers Walmart workers to strike in 15 cities tomorrow

Tomorrow is shaping up to be another big day of action among low-wage workers as Walmart employees prepare to mount widespread protests and walkouts. OUR Walmart organizers are hoping the day of action will be the biggest since last year's Black Frid…

Read more »

How to talk about low-wage strikers

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5L2PPv97ZzOjT-oVlaJkuSnWBpppQonoVeuuv1gA0ano_Z8YFNownClSnouIWCwqoiOGsi9riwJ0dmgWcVi4FmFz3lh2ITfcxS9O8LgS_JuQTKPlMR1s5OC75kweMd4g9owmA2HklRttN/s1600/strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5L2PPv97ZzOjT-oVlaJkuSnWBpppQonoVeuuv1gA0ano_Z8YFNownClSnouIWCwqoiOGsi9riwJ0dmgWcVi4FmFz3lh2ITfcxS9O8LgS_JuQTKPlMR1s5OC75kweMd4g9owmA2HklRttN/s1600/strike.jpg" /></a></div>Are you dreading the prospect of talking to your right-wing uncle over the Labor Day weekend? <br /><br />When the subject of low-wage worker strikes comes up, here are things you can say in response to the predictable anti-worker arguments you'll hear:<br /><ul><li><em>"Those jobs are for high school kids and dropouts working part time. They don't deserve more money."</em>  Actually most people working in low-wage service sectors like retail and fast-food are <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=623664947664226&set=a.591503887546999.1073741828.580610428636345&type=1">middle-age and working full time</a> to support their families. The average age of workers filling low-wage job positions is 35 and more than a third of them are 40 or older. On average, they earn half of their family's income and 28 percent of them have kids.</li></ul><ul><li><em>"Well then they should get different jobs if they want more money. It's their fault for choosing to work crappy jobs that are supposed to be for teenagers."</em> No, it isn't their fault because most of them didn't choose those jobs. They were forced into them by <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/our-low-wage-recovery-how-mcjobs-have-replaced-middle-class-jobs/261839/">an economy being dominated by low-wage industries</a>. By a three-to-one margin, high-skilled, good-paying jobs that have been lost due to recession and bad trade deals have been replaced by low-wage jobs in the service industry. Sixty percent of jobs lost in the recession were in middle-class occupations while 21 percent were in low-wage occupations. Since the recession, 58 percent of job growth has been in low-wage occupations while just 22 percent has been in middle-income level jobs. Do the math!</li></ul><ul><li><em>"Still, flipping burgers has always been a minimum wage job and that's the way it should be."</em> Okay, but if we're paying workers based on inflation and productivity, then <a href="http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/facts/">the minimum wage needs to be increased</a>, too. Right now it stands at just $7.25 an hour and hasn't been increased since 2009. If the minimum wage kept up with inflation over the past 40 years, it would be $10.74. And if it kept up with the rise in productivity it would be $18.67. The annual income for a full-time worker making the federal minimum wage is $15,080 - well below the poverty line for a family of three or four.</li></ul><ul><li><em>"Paying low-wage workers more by increasing the minimum wage or giving them raises will hurt businesses and raise prices."</em> Says who? While the CEOs of Walmart and fast-food corporations would love to pass the cost of higher wages on to consumers, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/robert-reich-wages-mcdonalds-walmart-_n_3837762.html">they can well afford to pay their workers more</a>. The top eight fast-food chains made $7.35 billion in profits last year. Walmart's CEO makes more in one hour than the average Walmart employee makes in a year. If the CEO of McDonald's -- who got a $4.1 million raise last year -- can take home $13.8 million a year, he can afford to pay workers more than poverty wages.</li></ul><ul><li><em>"Well, I'm not a fast-food worker so what they get paid doesn't impact me."</em> Actually it does. The rising number of workers making low wages means more and more people have to turn to public assistance like food stamps and other welfare programs. They can't make ends mean when the only jobs available pay so little. Low wages at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/walmart-taxpayers-house-report_n_3365814.html">a single Walmart store can cost taxpayers up to $900,000 a year</a>. So winning a living wage for workers in retail, fast-food, warehouse and other low-wage industries will save taxpayers tons of money. And let's not forget that higher pay usually means lower employee turnover and higher productivity for business. Plus, higher wages will boost consumer spending and strength local economies.</li></ul>Finally, remind your right-wing relatives that Labor Day is about honoring workers -- ALL workers!

fast food strikes Labor Day low wage workers walmart strikers How to talk about low-wage strikers

Are you dreading the prospect of talking to your right-wing uncle over the Labor Day weekend? When the subject of low-wage worker strikes comes up, here are things you can say in response to the predictable anti-worker arguments you'll hear:"Those jo…

Read more »