Protests greet shoppers at Walmarts nationwide

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wal-Mart work­ers and sup­port­ers marched in protest at a num­ber of stores nation­wide Thurs­day and Fri­day, blast­ing the wages, ben­e­fits and treat­ment of employ­ees of the world’s largest retailer.

The efforts seemed to do lit­tle to keep shop­pers away though — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it was its best Black Fri­day ever.

In Para­mount, Calif., author­i­ties arrested a small group of pro­test­ers Fri­day out­side a Wal­mart. Eliz­a­beth Bren­nan of Ware­house Work­ers United said nine peo­ple, includ­ing three employ­ees, were arrested shortly after 12 noon for block­ing the street out­side the store in Para­mount. At one point, how­ever, more than 1,000 peo­ple blocked traf­fic out­side the store, Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker told KNBC-TV.

In Lake­wood, Colo., shop­pers hes­i­tated as they passed dozens of pro­test­ers out­side a Wal­mart but entered with­out inci­dent. Some pro­test­ers held signs play­ing off of the retail­ing giant’s cor­po­rate slo­gan, “Live bet­ter,” accus­ing the com­pany of cor­po­rate greed and under­pay­ing its workers.

“This is the way you get a fair shake. You’ve got to fight for it. You’ve always had to,” said pro­tester Char­lie May, of the Indus­trial Work­ers of the World labor organization.

A union-backed group called OUR Wal­mart has said that it is hold­ing an esti­mated 1,000 protests in 46 states. The exact num­ber is unclear. Wal-Mart has refuted that esti­mate, say­ing the fig­ure is grossly exag­ger­ated and that the protests involved few of its own employees.

A num­ber of demon­stra­tions and walk-outs occurred last week at stores but were sched­uled to cul­mi­nate on one of the year’s busiest shop­ping days.

OUR Wal­mart, made up of cur­rent and for­mer Wal-Mart employ­ees, was formed in 2010 to press the com­pany for bet­ter work­ing conditions.

The retailer filed an unfair labor prac­tice charge with the National Labor Rela­tions Board last week against the United Food and Com­mer­cial Work­ers Inter­na­tional Union. The com­pany said that the demon­stra­tions orga­nized by OUR Wal­mart threat­ened to dis­rupt its busi­ness and intim­i­date cus­tomers and associates.

Wal-Mart said roughly 50 employ­ees par­tic­i­pated in the events Thurs­day and a “few dozen” employ­ees Fri­day. Com­pany spokesman Dan Fogle­man said that the num­ber of asso­ciates who missed their shifts dur­ing the two days of events is 60 per­cent lower than last year.

“It was proven last night — and again today — that the OUR Wal­mart group doesn’t speak for the 1.3 mil­lion Wal­mart asso­ciates,” the com­pany said in a statement.

The union group esti­mated that “hun­dreds” of employ­ees par­tic­i­pated nationwide.

Vic­to­ria Mar­tinez, 29, marched in front of the store in Para­mount on Black Fri­day. The Wal­mart photo depart­ment employee worked her shift on Thanks­giv­ing but skipped work on Fri­day to “speak out”. She said the com­pany shows a lack of respect for employ­ees, not­ing that she faced retal­i­a­tion by local man­agers after speak­ing out about prob­lems dur­ing an open dis­cus­sion spon­sored by the head office.

“I believe that when I started at this com­pany, it was great,” said Mar­tinez, who’s worked for Wal-Mart for seven years. “They’ve taken away every­thing that is great.”

Wal-Mart for many years has faced intense scrutiny over its wage and ben­e­fit poli­cies and treat­ment of its work­ers. Fogle­man says that the com­pany pro­vides some of the best jobs in the retail indus­try and that its wages and ben­e­fits typ­i­cally meet or exceed those of com­peti­tors. The retailer main­tains that it has many long-term employ­ees and that its turnover rate is below the indus­try average.

The com­pany, based in Ben­tonville, Ark., oper­ates 10,400 stores in 27 countries.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Nov 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.