The workers at Walmart – through their organization OUR WALMART – have just completed three years of continuous and constant struggle to make Walmart listen to their demand that the corporation treat them better. They have been able to continue their actions undeterred on a national level. The original actions three years ago that launched this movement continue to play a role in maintaining this momentum.
The richest corporation in America, with profits equal to the earnings of 42% of Americans, has not listened and has not kept its promises to its workers and to the community in general. They keep opening more stores with ease, at the expense of these unfulfilled promises.
November 6 and 7, workers from seven different stores in southern California went on strike, launching a wave of strikes during November.
November 7, the workers completed the largest civil disobedience ever conducted against Walmart, with 54 arrests at 6:05 a.m. outside the Walmart market in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. (See photos.)
The following Monday, the strike was carried to Seattle, followed by Chicago and Ohio. Another strike occurred the next day in Dallas, followed by Pennsylvania, and finally more strikes in Central Florida and later in South Florida. Everywhere the workers are coming out on strike with one voice.
Workers in many more cities joined this movement on Black Friday, which has historically been Walmart’s most profitable day of the year. Walmart workers in cities in New York, Arizona, Minnesota, and North Carolina joined with the cities where strikes broke out earlier in November to demand :
Black Friday also saw other demonstrations of civil disobedience at the entrances of Walmart stores in Ontario, Ca., Chicago, and San Leandro, Ca.
This struggle is developing – step by step – toward positive changes that can be won at Walmart!
