Striking workers from Twin Cities join protests outside Walmart shareholder meeting

June 6, 2014 by

Sam Walton famously required that Walmart employees flash a smile and offer a greeting to anyone coming within 10 feet of their path. Moronica Owens this week discovered a few exceptions to the “10-foot rule” at Walmart’s annual shareholder meetings in Fayetteville, Ark.

“I’m a Walmart associate; I know the 10-foot rule,” Owens said. “But we had corporate people who didn’t even want to speak to us, who were giving dirty looks and ignoring us. I’m like, ‘What happened to the 10-foot rule?’”

Moronica Owens and Sheena Kennedy inform their manager at the Brooklyn Center Walmart that they are going on strike. He walked away from them. "I wanted him to know, this is exactly why I’m going on strike, to hear why I’m doing this," Owens said. "He didn’t want to hear it at all."

Moronica Owens and Sheena Kennedy inform their manager at the Brooklyn Center Walmart that they are going on strike. He walked away from them. “I wanted him to know, this is exactly why I’m going on strike, to hear why I’m doing this,” Owens said. “He didn’t want to hear it at all.”

Owens, reached by phone from the Fayetteville airport, manages the men’s apparel department at Walmart in Brooklyn Center. She and co-worker Sheena Kennedy went on strike Tuesday before traveling to Arkansas to take part in a series of demonstrations surrounding the shareholder meetings.

Striking workers and other members of OUR Walmart, which organized the demonstrations, called on the world’s largest retailer to raise wages and to stop retaliating against associates who voice their concerns.

“I was tired of the disrespect, the unfair treatment and the retaliation I’ve seen done to other associates,” Owens said, explaining her decision to go on strike. “Too many people are afraid to speak up because they don’t want to lose their job.”

Demonstrators also called on Walmart to do more for working mothers. Owens, a single mother, traveled to Arkansas with her 3-year-old son, Parish.

Owens began working as an associate when the Brooklyn Center store opened in September 2012. She saw her hourly wage increase from $7.80 to $10.90 after being promoted to department manager, and in January she enrolled herself and Parish into the company’s health insurance plan for the first time.

Owens lives with her sister, who also works at Walmart, and her sister’s three children. Even with Owens’ promotion and her earnings as a member of the Army National Guard, they struggle to afford food, particularly during weeks when the rent on their apartment is due.

“There are times when my sister comes home starving, and we barely have food in our refrigerator because our paychecks were only enough to pay the rent,” Owens said. “I’ll braid hair or go donate plasma just to, in some sense, make ends meet.”

Scrambling to keep food on the table takes time away from being a mom, Owens added.

“Spending so much time working, I’m so tired that I just want to sleep, just want to rest when I come home,” Owens said. “And there’s the stress level of knowing I have go back the next day and do the same thing. What do I have to show for all the hard work I’ve done?”

Walmart employs more women than any other private business in the U.S., but the retailer’s low wages and erratic scheduling make it difficult for mothers to support themselves, let alone their families.

Many employees are forced to rely on public assistance to make ends meet, meaning taxpayers effectively subsidize Walmart’s low wages. According to one estimate, 18 percent of all food stamp expenditures go to Walmart workers.

During their trip to Arkansas, Owens and Kennedy took part in OUR Walmart workshops and demonstrations, including one outside the home of Rob Walton, the Walmart chairman who increased his net worth by $305 million last year, to a whopping $35 billion.

The best part of the experience, Owens said, was meeting with other Walmart workers who are taking the same stand. The connection “felt like family,” she said.

“It gave me a sense of security to know that I wasn’t standing alone, to know there were more people that felt the way I felt and it’s OK that I’m speaking up,” Owens said. “Before I heard of OUR Walmart, I didn’t know it was my right to go on strike, that there were other associates who felt the need to change things.”

And despite the icy reception from Walmart executives in Fayetteville, Owens has no plans to ditch the 10-foot rule when she’s back in Brooklyn Center.

“I take pride in my work,” she said. “I’m the one who makes the store. I’m the one who’s hands-on with the customers every day. It’s like my second home.”

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Twin Cities workers join nationwide Walmart strike

June 4, 2014 by
Supporters set up a picket line outside the Walmart in Brooklyn Center, where two associates, members of OUR Walmart, are on strike this week.

Supporters set up a picket line outside the Walmart in Brooklyn Center, where two associates, members of OUR Walmart, are on strike this week.

BROOKLYN CENTER – Walmart associates from Apple Valley and Brooklyn Center walked off the job today, joining another nationwide wave of strikes and demonstrations targeting the world’s largest retailer for its low pay and retaliation against workers looking to organize.

Similar strikes took place today in 20 other U.S. cities, as members of the workers’ group OUR Walmart built up momentum for demonstrations Friday outside Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting in Fayetteville, Ark.

Twin Cities supporters, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, demonstrated outside the Walmart here today. They rallied around Cantaré Davunt, an Apple Valley associate and one of three local OUR Walmart members who joined the strike.

“I walked into work today and told them I will not be coming in, even though I was on the schedule” Davunt said.

U.S. Rep Keith Ellison hugs Cantare Davunt, who walked out of her job at Walmart in Apple Valley to join the OUR Walmart strike.

U.S. Rep Keith Ellison hugs Cantare Davunt, who walked out of her job at Walmart in Apple Valley to join the OUR Walmart strike.

Two workers at the Brooklyn Center store walked off the job earlier this week. They traveled to Arkansas yesterday and will take part in protests outside Walmart’s shareholder meeting, OUR Walmart organizer Diana Tastad said.

Strikers nationwide are demanding Walmart pay $25,000 a year for full-time work, reinstate workers who have been fired for taking part in OUR Walmart activities and end its campaign of retaliation against workers standing up for a voice on the job.

“I’m on strike today to end retaliation,” Davunt said. “I’m tired of seeing (OUR Walmart) members and other associates bullied in the workplace because they want to speak out. We want Walmart to end the retaliation so we can finally live better.”

The midday demonstration in support of striking workers drew about 30 people, including clergy, other low-wage workers, small business owners and supporters from the labor community. In addition to ending retaliation, demonstrators called on Walmart to raise wages and provide more stable scheduling, so that working parents are better able to balance work and family commitments.

“We’re not anti-Walmart, we’re anti-poverty wages,” Ellison said.

A DFLer from Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Ellison and his staff have become a fixture of local Walmart walkouts, providing assurance to workers that they have the right to strike – and warning Walmart that it is illegal to retaliate against workers who participate.

“Our country has been made great because of courageous people like you,” Ellison told Davunt. “I want you to know you’ve got the love, affection and appreciation of people all over this state and this country.

“If anybody messes with you, we want to know about it right away. We’re going to do something about that because it’s retaliation.”

The NLRB last year charged Walmart with illegally threatening, disciplining and firing workers for participating in OUR Walmart protests and strikes – charges the retailer is currently fighting in court.

Among the incidents included in the NLRB’s case against Walmart is the disciplining of an associate in Sauk Centre, Minn., who joined an OUR Walmart strike one year ago. Mike Ahles, who took part in protests surrounding the company’s 2013 shareholder meeting, received a “coaching” – Walmart’s term for disciplinary action – from his manager for missing work. After three coachings, a worker can be fired.

Davunt said she’s seen too many “coachings” come on the heels of workers speaking out.

“If you do something to speak out, they’ll find a reason to coach you,” Davunt said. “It’s scary when you can’t afford to run the risk of losing your job and your income.

“I’m not afraid because I believe no matter what Walmart chooses to do, I’m doing the right thing. There are too many people who are scared to speak up, so I’m doing this for them too.”

The Walmart Wall of Inequality.

The Walmart Wall of Inequality.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Walmart fires Brooklyn Center associate who joined one-day strike

February 28, 2014 by

web.walmart-firing1April Williams knew the risk she ran last November, when she joined two co-workers in a one-day strike for higher wages, full-time scheduling and a voice on the job.

But Williams, a single mother who lives with her sister and relies on public assistance to make ends meet, said she’d rather face those risks than remain silent any longer. “Living like this is not working for me,” she said.

Walmart fired Williams earlier this month, but yesterday she vowed to keep fighting.

“Walmart has chosen to not only pay the majority of its workers poverty wages, it has also decided to retaliate against workers like me who dare to speak out,” Williams said. “No matter what Walmart tries to do to me, I will continue to stand up and speak out for higher wages free from retaliation.”

Fortunately for Williams, she’s not in that fight alone.

More than 100 supporters, including several single mothers, marched to the Brooklyn Center store yesterday, where they called on management to reinstate Williams, pay higher wages and enact family-friendly scheduling policies that empower single moms like Williams to lift themselves out of poverty.

OUR Walmart members Cantaré Davunt and Gabe Teneyuque exit the Brooklyn Center Walmart after delivering a letter in support of fired associate April Williams.

OUR Walmart members Cantaré Davunt and Gabe Teneyuque exit the Brooklyn Center Walmart after delivering a letter in support of fired associate April Williams.

Two Walmart associates active in OUR Walmart, the non-union organizing group behind the recent wave of unfair-labor-practice strikes and protests across the country, delivered a petition and letter supporting Williams to management at the Brooklyn Center store.

“I was raised in a military family, and I learned we need to speak up for those who aren’t able to speak for themselves,” said Cantaré Davunt of Duluth, who has worked at Walmart for nearly five years.

OUR Walmart organized the demonstration with TakeAction Minnesota as part of a week of action targeting low-wage employers – and highlighting the importance of raising Minnesota’s minimum wage.

Wealthy corporations like Walmart have a responsibility to pay their workers higher hourly wages and to create flexible scheduling for store associates working to balance work and family life, demonstrators said.

Jacquita Berens, a single mother of three and a full-time student, is not a Walmart employee, but she joined the demonstration to support friends and family members who work minimum-wage jobs at Walmart.

“I and many others like me are working hard, long hour shifts daily, away from our children and families yet receive no benefits,” Berens said. “As employees, we’re constantly put in situations where we’re forced to choose whether to care for our sick children or lose our jobs. Poverty wages just aren’t right.”

Berens delivered a letter from TakeAction Minnesota calling on Walmart to help solve Minnesota’s low-wage work crisis by publicly supporting a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2015 and index the wage to adjust for inflation.

In Minnesota, seven out of ten minimum wage workers are women, and many are single mothers struggling to provide for themselves and their families.

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Bouyed by prayers, workers return to Brooklyn Center Walmart after one-day strike

November 26, 2013 by
Supporters from the faith community pray for April Williams' safe return to her job at the Brooklyn Center Walmart.

Supporters pray for April Williams’ safe return to work at the Brooklyn Center Walmart after she joined a 24-hour strike.

One day after exercising her legally protected right to strike, April Williams walked back into the Brooklyn Center Walmart for her scheduled shift this morning. But Williams did not take that walk alone.

In the parking lot outside the store, about 25 people, including eight clergy members, huddled around Williams, praying for a safe return to her job without retaliation from management. The group then followed Williams on her way toward the store entrance, singing the hymn “Come Walk With Us.”

Three people from the group accompanied Williams inside the building, including Rev. Doug Mork, pastor at Cross of Glory Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Center.

“The manager met us at the door and said, ‘Let’s go clock in,’” Mork said.

OUR Walmart, the non-union organizing group behind a wave of unfair-labor-practice strikes and protests expected across the country this week, plans similar displays of support for two other workers who joined the Brooklyn Center strike, Lillian Griffin and Andrea Williams, when they return to work later this week.

“All who work hard are entitled to a living wage that provides for the basic necessities,” Rev. Laurie Eaton, pastor at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, said. “We want to ensure that today, Walmart and other big corporations get a clear message: We support April and her peers in their quest for economic dignity.”

Walmart managers, Mork added, “must treat April fairly as she comes back from this protected activity she has engaged in.”

It remains to be seen whether support from clergy and community leaders like U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who walked out of the Brooklyn Center store with strikers yesterday, will deter management from illegally threatening, disciplining or firing workers for their participation in organizing activities. Walmart has a track record of such behavior, and the National Labor Relations Board last week announced its intent to prosecute the company for targeting OUR Walmart supporters in 14 states, including Minnesota.

Going on strike was “a big step,” April Williams said, but not one she regretted taking.

“I was scared, just like all of the people in there,” she said, pointing to her store. “But living like this is not working for me. I’m like everyone else there who needs food stamps. It’s helping, but I shouldn’t have to use them.”

The striking workers’ demands included higher wages, full-time scheduling for employees who want it and an end to retaliation against workers who speak out for change.

“I just want to make a stand and let everyone in there know that you do have a voice,” Williams said.

The non-profit, faith-based coalition ISAIAH, which turned out supporters this morning, held a brief press conference outside the Walmart, where Mork and Eaton talked about the faith community’s commitment to eliminating poverty wages.

“People do not exist to serve the economy; the economy exists to serve people,” Mork said. “Our calling is to make a change. Employers happy to receive tax dollars ought to be providing living-wage jobs. That’s why we’re here.”

ISAIAH, with more than 100 member congregations statewide, is part of a coalition of labor and community groups pushing for a significant increase to Minnesota’s minimum wage during the 2014 Legislative Session.

Corporations like Walmart aren’t likely to raise workers’ wages on their own, Eaton acknowledged. “This is why today we have to elect officials who have the power to fix this broken system,” she said. “It is well past time to pass an increase in the minimum wage.”

And that increase ought to be meaningful.

“As religious leaders, we will not ask, ‘Did the Legislature increase the minimum wage?’ Eaton said. “We will ask, ‘Did the Legislature do away with poverty wages?’”

[Click here to add your name to a petition in support of raising the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2015.]

April Williams carries her backpack into work at the Brooklyn Center Walmart, accompanied by faith leaders and an OUR Walmart organizer.

April Williams carries her backpack into work at the Brooklyn Center Walmart, accompanied by faith leaders and an OUR Walmart organizer.

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Walmart workers go on strike in Brooklyn Center, kick off week of action for better wages

November 25, 2013 by
Labor, faith and community supporters picket outside Walmart in Brooklyn Center as three associates inside inform their manager they are going on strike.

Labor, faith and community supporters picket outside Walmart in Brooklyn Center as three associates inside inform their manager they are going on strike.

The nationwide wave of Walmart strikes hit Minnesota this morning, when three women who work at the Brooklyn Center store informed management they were going on an unfair-labor-practices strike.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison and Rev. Doug Mork of nearby Cross of Glory Lutheran Church accompanied the workers into the store, and dozens of supporters from faith, labor and community groups greeted them on their way out, ready to erect a picket line.

Andrea Williams, April Williams and Lillian Griffin said they decided to take a stand after attempts to organize for better wages, meaningful benefits and a voice on the job drew retaliation from store managers.

“If you try to speak out to management, they retaliate,” Andrea Williams said. “They cut your hours.”

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison walked out of Walmart alongside three striking Brooklyn Center employees: (L to R) April Williams, Lillian Griffith and Andrea Williams.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison walked out of Walmart alongside three striking Brooklyn Center employees: (L to R) April Williams, Lillian Griffith and Andrea Williams.

The three workers are a part of the non-union organizing group OUR Walmart, which is giving voice to Walmart associates and has supported similar short-term, ULP strikes across the country over the last year.

The strike kicks off a week of action in the Twin Cities targeting low-wage employers like Walmart. The week will culminate with Black Friday events, including a march to the Midway Walmart in St. Paul.

Workers in Miami also went on strike this morning, and Walmart stores in Sacramento, Tampa, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Ohio have seen strikes this month as well.

The strikes build momentum heading into Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, when OUR Walmart claims workers and activists will protest outside 1,500 stores nationwide. [Click here to RSVP for the St. Paul event on Facebook.]

The strikers’ demands – a living wage, full-time scheduling for workers who want it and an end to retaliation – hardly seem like too much to ask from a company that turned a $15.7 billion profit last year.

Yet Griffin and Andrea Williams earn just $8.40 per hour, while April Williams, a single mother, earns $9.50. The three women use Walmart’s benefits sparingly – Griffin said she can afford only the company’s vision plan – and rely on public assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid to meet their needs.

A recent report by Minnesotans for a Fair Economy estimated the cost to taxpayers of providing public assistance to Walmart workers statewide at $40.6 million per year.

How much of a raise do workers want? “With the money Walmart makes, I think at least $13 per hour,” Andrea Williams said.

Ellison agreed, but the DFLer, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, said Walmart was not the only employer paying poverty wages. That’s why Congress should act to raise the minimum wage for all workers, he said.

“This is not just about this Walmart or this company; this is a low-wage problem that is hurting the whole country,” he said.

Low-wage employers are the target of a series of events planned this week by OUR Walmart and its allies, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, Minnesotans for a Fair Economy and TakeAction Minnesota. A protest Wednesday will call attention to poverty wages paid by customer-service contractors at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and janitors who clean Target stores in the Twin Cities plan to stage a one-day strike Friday morning downtown Minneapolis.

When the week of action concludes with hundreds of people marching to the Midway Walmart, the three striking workers from Brooklyn Center will be leading the way. With support from Ellison and so many community members, the strikers were hopeful they would not face retaliation from management upon their return to work.

“There might be retaliation for this, but we’re out here,” Griffin said. “So there’s no going back now.”

“You’re exercising your rights,” Ellison told the strikers. “You deserve a voice on the job. You deserve respect on the job. And you are not alone.”

The Brooklyn Center strike is the first of several actions planned this week targeting low-wage employers like Walmart.

The Brooklyn Center strike is the first of several actions planned this week targeting low-wage employers like Walmart.

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