As communities across the country raise their voices in calls for changes at Walmart, workers from stores throughout the Dallas-area went on strike this morning in the first-ever Walmart Associate walk-out in Dallas protesting attempts to silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job. Walmart workers from stores in Seattle, Miami, the Washington, D.C. area, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area also walked off the job.
Later today warehouse workers, community supporters, including Jobs with Justice, Communications Workers of America and others, and striking Walmart Associates will take their calls for change to Walmart's global corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart is holding its annual financial analyst meeting. This comes days after Associates in Los Angeles walked-off the job calling for an end to the retaliation [1].
“We cannot continue to allow Walmart’s attempts to silence and retaliate against workers continue,” said Stacey Cottongame, a striking worker from the Ennis, Texas store. Stacey is one of thousands of members of OUR Walmart, the nationwide Associate organization calling for changes at the company. “Our jobs shouldn’t be on the line because we are speaking out for better jobs and a stronger community.”
Additionally today in Bentonville, Walmart executives woke up to paid advertisements in five local papers. The ads, coordinated by consumer watchdog group SumofUs.org, and paid for by supporters of Illinois and Southern California warehouse workers. The ads feature portraits of four top Walmart executives and call on the mega retailer to take responsibility for working conditions inside its contracted warehouses.
“For too long Walmart’s executives have ignored the health and safety of its workers, but now as momentum shifts, the retail giant’s execs are seeing the effect of their ambivalence play out through strikes in their warehouses, and now a series of 11 ads blanketing their hometown newspapers,” SumOfUs.org Executive Director Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said. “They won’t be able to ignore the workers much longer.”
Walmart workers began walking off the job at 6:30 am this morning at the Ennis store and later joined Associates from the Lancaster store. Together, they met Associates at the Dallas store, who walked off the job and were joined by community supporters. The group protested outside the Dallas store with signs reading, “Stand Up, Live Better, Stop Retaliation” and “Stop Trying to Silence Us.”
Walmart workers and community leaders have been calling on Walmart and Chairman Rob Walton to address take home pay so low that Associates are forced to rely on public programs to support their families and understaffing that is keeping workers from receiving sufficient hours and is also hurting customer service. The company has not only refused to address these concerns that are affecting 1.4 million Associates across the country, it has attempted to silence those who speak out and has retaliated against workers for raising concerns that would to help the company, workers and the community.
