We Salute the Courageous Walmart Workers & the UFCW

October 10th, 2012

In the spirit of so many workers and so many groups organizing together to take economic power back into their own hands, workers at a Walmart stores at 28 Walmarts in 12 different cities walked out of work on Tuesday. These workers, aided by The United Food and Chemical Workers'  Making Change at Walmart workers outreach and organizing group, threatened further and wider walk-outs on "Black Friday," retailer' critical shopping day after Thanksgiving.

OUR Walmart, another UFCW backed worker organization, closely affiliated with the Making Change at Walmart group, vowed to target as many Walmarts across the country as possible with "non-violent actions, flash mobs, raising public awareness of illegal working conditions and any other legal means to force Walmart to come to the table and bargain over a fair wage and fair treatment for hundreds of thousands of Walmart workers nation-wide.

This is a historic event, because no retail Walmart workers had ever gone on strike before. After the anti-worker Supreme Court threw out the largest class action discrimination case in history - brought against Walmart by women workers nationally - these spreading strikes demonstrate that the winner take all mentality of the 1% society can only last so long. Workers will only accept mistreatment, no benefits, low pay and exploitative working conditions for so long before they organize and fight back.

These efforts follow in the successful footsteps of the NY Taxi Workers Alliance, who started in much the same place and are now the newest chartered AFL-CIO union in the country. They recently won a huge victory and fare increase, including a health care plan, from taxi fleet owners in NYC that was historic in its own right. The Domestic Workers United, We Make The Road NY (Organizing car wash employees),The Restaurant Opportunity Center (ROC) - organizing and helping restaurant workers gain dignity at their jobs, all these groups and many more signal a resurgence in workers understanding:Labor Rights Are Civil Rights!

To Read more go to the Huffington Post and we thank them for their excellent coverage of these Walmart strikes.