TORONTO – As Americans stake their claim on cheap Black Friday buys at the end of the week, their shopping could be interrupted at Walmart storefronts where thousands of employees plan to strike.
Tired of low wages, poor benefits and below average working conditions from the world’s largest private employer, thousands of Walmart employees are planning to protest outside of the stores on one of America’s most coveted shopping days.
Why Walmart employees are protesting
Walmart employees’ attempts at unionizing have always been squashed by the big-box retailer, but this time they’re backed up by OUR Walmart, an organization formed by current and former employees.
The officials say walk-outs and demonstrations were planned to protest Walmart’s retaliation tactics against employees who publicly denounce the working conditions and wages.
The company allegedly reduces workers’ hours, or changes schedules to inconvenience employees.
Waves of protests have already swept the United States, but OUR Walmart promises that the strikes will culminate on Black Friday, according to the Associated Press.
“We envision a future in which our company treats us, the Associates of Walmart, with respect and dignity. We envision a world where we succeed in our careers, our company succeeds in business, our customers receive great service and value, and Walmart and Associates share all of these goals,” OUR Walmart says on its website.
The organization says Walmart is celebrating its 50th anniversary by telling consumers a one-sided story, leaving out employee grief.
The website also includes employee testimonies of mistreatment, lack of health coverage and low wages without a promise of a raise.
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In a Huffington Post report earlier this week, employees discuss their low wages.
According to the website, low-level workers start at near minimum wage and earn raises of 20 to 40 cents an hour through promotions. A cart-pusher making $8 an hour could end up making only $10.60 after six years with the company.
Walmart files labour charge against striking employees
The Bentonville, Ark., retailer filed an unfair labour practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has helped striking employees.
The complaint says that demonstrations organized by OUR Walmart will disrupt business and intimidate customers and other store workers.
“We want Walmart to take seriously the concerns being raised. The endgame is for workers to have a voice in the workplace,” Tom Geiger, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, told the Daily Beast.
More than 200 million customers visit Walmart’s 10,300 stores in 27 countries every week. Walmart says the handful of protesters make up a margin of its 1.3 million workforce, according to CNN.
Ashley Hardie, Walmart’s manager of media relations, told Global News that the company doesn’t think looming strikes will have “any impact” on Black Friday plans.
“Our stores will be operating normally on Black Friday and our customers will see nothing unusual when they shop. These so-called protests involve a handful of associates at a handful of stores,” she said in a statement, noting that officials are “laser focused” on preparing for the shopping event.
She noted that most of the protesters aren’t even Walmart employees, but union organizers and union members.
Hardie said employees are listened to by store officials and that 250,000 employees have worked for the company for more than 10 years. Turnover rate is at 37 per cent, which is lower than the U.S. retail industry’s average of 44 per cent, she noted.
“We want everyone to have a positive and rewarding experience working at Walmart. But we recognize that not everyone is going to find what they are looking for in their job – that’s true of any workplace.”
A Walmart spokesman told American reporters earlier this week that the strike is “just another exaggerated publicity campaign aimed at generating headlines to mislead” consumers, Businessweek magazine reported.
“In order for Walmart to attract good people we need to offer competitive wages and benefits and we do,” Kory Lundberg, Walmart’s director of national media relations said to the Huffington Post.
“We offer pay and benefits that meet or exceed the majority of our competition in every location we operate and that includes unionized competitors. We’re clearly offering jobs that people want,” he said, noting that last year Walmart received more than five million job applications.
The NLRB says it likely won’t return with a judgment until Thursday at the earliest.
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