Half Price Books workers ready to bargain after victory in St. Louis Park

January 7, 2022 by

(Photo from MN Bookstore Workers United’s Facebook feed.)

In an election certified yesterday by the National Labor Relations Board, workers at Half Price Books in St. Louis Park won recognition of their union, joining workers at three other Twin Cities locations who voted to organize a month earlier.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, which supported the organizing drive, said workers in St. Louis Park look forward to bargaining a contract with “livable wages, better working conditions and a seat at the table.”

Minneapolis-based Local 663 and UFCW Local 1189, based in the east metro and Duluth, have partnered on the groundbreaking union drive at the nationwide chain of booksellers. Workers at four of the Twin Cities’ six Half Price books locations, including Coon Rapids, Roseville and St. Paul, have now unionized, the first in the country to do so.

Each Half Price Books shop employs about 15 workers who are eligible to join the union.

Kristin Tamayo, a bookseller at the St. Louis Park store, said it’s exciting to be part of a “movement happening right now with booksellers and other members of the working class across the country.”

“We’re happy we organized a union so we can have protection of our jobs, benefits and equal treatment for all in our workplace,” Tamayo added. “Now we will have a voice at work and a seat at the table when it comes to making decisions that directly affect us and our wellbeing.”

Union members at the four stores will seek to bargain their first contracts jointly with Half Price Books. Talks are likely to begin this winter.

Those negotiations, like the organizing work that preceded them, will be led by Half Price Books workers themselves, Local 1189 representative Claire Van den Berghe said.

“From the start this has been a worker-led campaign where the workers call the shots,” she said. “They run their own social media, they make their own decisions, and we intend for bargaining to go the same way. It’s their voice at the table.”

The union drive has energized Half Price Books workers like Hanna Anderson, who works at the St. Paul store. She said that momentum will carry over into contract talks with the company.

“We’re excited to unionize because we’ve been working so hard throughout the pandemic and faced huge challenges – like low staffing levels, on-the-spot training, overwhelming workloads – all while risking COVID exposure every day we go into work.

“Through it all, we’ve stuck together. We all want to continue working at HPB, and it’s exactly because we enjoy working here that we want to unionize and make it a place that we can sustainably stay employed long term.”

Follow Half Price Books workers’ contract campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

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Grocery union launches campaign to hold Hy-Vee accountable for ‘good jobs’

October 5, 2015 by
These signs are popping up around the Twin Cities as part of a joint campaign between UFCW locals based in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

These signs are popping up in lawns across the Twin Cities as part of a joint campaign run by UFCW locals based in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

As Hy-Vee moves into the Twin Cities market, union grocery workers are rolling out a campaign to hold the supermarket chain to local standards for “good jobs.”

That means high wages, guaranteed schedules, affordable health care and retirement plans – and the security of a union contract.

“The ability to negotiate guaranteed wage increases, hours of work and benefits allow our members to take care of their families and strengthen our communities,” UFCW Local 1189 Secretary-Treasurer Jennifer Christensen said. “We are committed to making all retail grocery jobs really good jobs, meaning life-sustaining ones.”

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers staff grocery chains across the Twin Cities, including Cub Foods, Kowalski’s, Festival, Rainbow and Lunds and Byerly’s. These union shops represent “an oasis in the world of low-wage retail,” Christensen said.

Indeed, annual raises for members of Local 1189 who work in East Metro grocery stores take effect today, with part-time workers seeing a 45-cent hourly increase, keeping them on track to reach $14.90 per hour, according to the union. Full-time grocery clerks and journeyman meat cutters will see 50-cent raises, with senior clerks moving to $23.58 and cutters to $25.10.

Christensen said Local 1189 and Minneapolis-based UFCW Local 653 plan to reach out to Hy-Vee workers looking to organize for comparable wages and benefits.

But the chain, which so far has opened stores in New Hope and Oakdale, presents a unique challenge for union organizers. As an ESOP, Hy-Vee grants workers small shares in the company’s ownership structure as part of their compensation.

Of course, owning a few shares of stock is no guarantee of good wages, fair schedules or security at work. ESOP workers are able to organize for a voice on the job – a union – just like any other grocery store employee.

To drive home that message – and to warn Hy-Vee against interfering with workers’ efforts to join a union – the UFCW locals are teaming up on a “Union Jobs Are Good Jobs” campaign. Supporters are sending postcards to Hy-Vee management and workers, and lawn signs are popping up in neighborhoods across the Metro.

Click here to sign a petition in support of the “Union Jobs Are Good Jobs” campaign.

Click here to learn more about hosting a lawn sign.

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Protesters to Best Buy: ‘Get out of the way so we can have justice’

June 9, 2015 by
Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy's annual shareholder meeting.

Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting.

 

RICHFIELD – Inside and outside of Best Buy’s annual shareholders meeting today, Minnesotans called on the corporation to stop using its political clout to block policies that improve working families’ lives.

That includes proposed legislation in Minnesota that would provide workers and their families with the stability and security they need to ensure a healthy work-life balance – policies opposed by lobbying groups Best Buy helps fund.

Best Buy plays “an important role in the Chamber of Commerce and other business associations that have been opposing legislation that supports workers’ rights to take care of their families,” Veronica Mendez Moore, an organizer with the Twin Cities worker Center CTUL, told about 100 demonstrators at a rally outside the shareholders meeting.

CTUL, which has been supporting janitors’ campaign to improve wages and working conditions maintained by cleaning contractors that service big-box retailers, organized the protest with faith groups, labor unions and progressive organizations working to build support at the Capitol for basic worker benefits and protections.

The Working Parents Act, introduced by House DFLers last session and backed by labor, stalled after drawing swift opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Retailer’s Association, another Best Buy-led lobbying outfit. The bill pulled together initiatives seeking to crack down on employers who commit wage theft, require fairness in employee scheduling and guarantee workers access to earned sick time and paid family leave.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Too many of the jobs created during the current economic recovery don’t provide those benefits, janitor Hilario DeLeon told the crowd through a translator.

“Where I work we have no benefits at all,” DeLeon said. “We want to be able to have vacation. We want to be able to have paid sick days.”

DeLeon has cleaned the Target in downtown Minneapolis for seven years, and he said conditions deteriorate as contractors, looking to offer big-box retailers the lowest bid, seek new ways to cut costs. If Best Buy won’t agree to hold contractors to higher standards, he said, the company should at least stop using its clout at the Capitol to oppose raising the floor for everyone.

“We know that Best Buy has been getting in the way of our efforts,” DeLeon said. “We want Best Buy to get out of the way so we … can have justice.”

As protesters rallied outside, a delegation of activists gained access to Best Buy’s shareholder meeting by holding stock in the company or acting as a supportive shareholder’s proxy. Leticia Zuniga, a janitor and CTUL member who cleans Herberger’s, said a three Best Buy executives met with the delegation privately as well.

“We talked a lot about the problems there are in this industry: the rampant wage theft, workers not getting paid on time or with pay stubs, not knowing what hours they’re getting paid for,” Zuniga said. “We asked Best Buy to sign a responsible contractor policy, and they said they’d get back to us in a month.”

Ironically, the janitors who will clean up after today’s shareholders meeting are union members who enjoy many of the benefits workers inside Best Buy’s stores are fighting to win.

Ricardo Chavez, a member of the Service Employees International Union who works inside the corporate headquarters, joined the protest. He earns a fair wage with good benefits, predictable scheduling and access to paid sick days.

“But I know my brothers and sisters that work cleaning Best Buy’s stores right next door don’t have access to any of these benefits,” Chavez said. “Thousands of workers all over the state do not have access to these benefits, and all of us deserve them.”

Indeed, about 1 million workers in Minnesota do not have access to paid sick and safe time to care for themselves or their family members, TakeAction Minnesota Director Dan McGrath said, yet policies requiring employers to provide sick days are generally popular among voters.

“These corporations are created for people to make money,” Pastor Doug Mork of Cross of Glory Lutheran Church said. “They shouldn’t be cutting back our democratic voice.”

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Victory in Los Angeles buoys hopes of local 15 Now supporters

May 29, 2015 by
Paul Ahrens, a business representative for IATSE Local 44 in Southern California, offers details on the 15 Now victory in Los Angeles during a forum on the movement in St. Paul.

Paul Ahrens, a business representative for the Stagehands union in California, offers details on the 15 Now victory in Los Angeles during a forum in St. Paul.

 

Workers taking collective action and communities organizing for political change form the groundwork of 15 Now, panelists said Wednesday during a forum on the nationwide movement to raise wages.

The discussion was the second in a new series of monthly educational events hosted by the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, co-sponsored by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s Community Connections Committee.

Panelists included low-wage workers, union organizers and local activists in the 15 Now campaign, which advocates for $15 minimum-wage laws at the local level.

The East Side Freedom Library hosts a forum on 15 Now.

The East Side Freedom Library hosts a forum on 15 Now.

Already, 15 Now has achieved victories in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and, most recently, Los Angeles. Organizers are pushing a similar measure in Minneapolis, and if they succeed, St. Paul likely would be next.

Several unions are backing the 15 Now campaign, both in rhetoric and with resources – even though most union members already earn more than $15 per hour. Why?

“It’s the right thing to do,” Machinists union representative Rick Ryan said.

Paul Ahrens, a business representative for IATSE Local 44 in Southern California, said organized labor in Los Angeles “really came together around (the $15 minimum wage) in a big way.” The wage increase stands to benefit an estimated 800,000 workers in the city.

But political organizing alone isn’t enough to win a $15 minimum wage, panelists agreed.

Ahrens credited the heavy lifting in Los Angeles to “feeder movements” like OUR Walmart, fast food workers’ Fight for $15 and other groups organizing low-wage workers.

15 Now panelists include Cantare Davunt of OUR Walmart, Rick Ryan of the Machinists union (center) and Kip Hedges.

15 Now panelists include Cantare Davunt of OUR Walmart, Rick Ryan of the Machinists union (center) and Kip Hedges.

Such groups are alive and thriving in the Twin Cities too, former Walmart worker Cantaré Davunt said. Davunt was fired last winter, she believes, as a result of her support for OUR Walmart, a nationwide campaign to improve wages and working conditions at the retail chain.

“Without taking political or organizing action, we end up having to beg or hope they’ll give us decent pay,” Davunt said. “Meanwhile, too many workers can’t afford to take those risks to make our lives better.”

Low-wage workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have taken collective action to make gains at work, winning paid sick days and, potentially, a $10 minimum wage by August. So, too, have janitors at big-box retailers across the Twin Cities, organizing with the local worker center CTUL.

The challenge for 15 Now, local activist Kip Hedges said, is building a coalition around these organizations, bolstering it with support from the labor movement and the progressive community, and turning that collective strength into political change.

“The ghost of 15 is kind of dancing around all these things,” said Hedges, a former Delta baggage handler who was fired for publicly supporting 15 Now. “It will push forward the effort to get $15 in Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

The next Community Connections forum at the East Side Freedom Library, scheduled for June 24, is on the topic “Common Sense Economics.” To learn more about the series, or about the St. Paul RLF’s Community Connections Committee, contact Vicki Beebe at vbeebe@stpaulunions.org or 651-222-3787, extension 20.

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Picketers: Walmart’s raising wages, so why won’t Target?

March 4, 2015 by
Demonstrators march outside Target's headquarters on Nicollet Mall.

Demonstrators march outside Target’s headquarters on Nicollet Mall.

Activists picketed outside Target Corp.’s headquarters downtown Minneapolis yesterday, calling on CEO Brian Cornell to make raising wages for frontline workers a part of the company’s massive restructuring effort.

Organizers of 15 Now, a grassroots movement working to raise the minimum wage in Minneapolis, looked to pressure Target into following the lead of its primary competitor, Walmart, which announced plans last month to raise its workers’ wages to a $10 minimum by next year.

“If Target wants to do what’s right, they’ll set themselves apart from Walmart” by increasing wages even further, Walmart associate and 15 Now supporter Cantare Davunt said. “We are not going away until they do.”

web.Target-wages2The picket began at 4:30 p.m. and lasted about an hour. It drew more than 25 supporters, including members of the Minneapolis-based community group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, which is backing 15 Now’s campaign to raise wages.

“It cannot wait,” NOC organizer Octancia Adams said, “because the rent cannot wait.”

Activists also used the event to respond to Mayor Betsy Hodges’ statement that she would not support an ordinance to raise the minimum wage in Minneapolis, favoring a regional or statewide solution instead.

Kip Hedges, the former Delta Air Lines baggage handler fired for his support of 15 Now, found himself in unfamiliar territory, urging the mayor to be more like Walmart.

The retailer’s decision to raise wages prompted several others, including Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, to follow suit. If Minneapolis raises its minimum wage, Hedges said, other cities will do the same.

“When one big player takes a big step and raises wages, the other big players follow,” he said. “Help us lead the fight, Mayor Hodges.”

15 Now plans a major action to ramp up its campaign in Minneapolis April 15. Monitor 15 Now Minnesota’s Facebook page for details.

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Lawmaker calls on Target to follow Walmart’s lead, raise workers’ wages

February 24, 2015 by
Rep. Joe Atkins

Rep. Joe Atkins

After relentless pressure from workers and the community, Walmart announced last month it will raise minimum pay for its workers to $9 an hour in April and $10 an hour by February 2016.

Now, one Minnesota lawmaker is calling on Minneapolis-based Target to follow Walmart’s lead.

Rep. Joe Atkins, lead DFLer on the Minnesota House Commerce Committee, issued a statement today urging Target to include a commitment to raising wages to $10 per hour in its announcement of fourth-quarter earnings tomorrow.

Wal-Mart’s announcement that it will be increasing its lowest employee wage to $10 per hour is not only welcome news for Wal-Mart employees, but good for business at Wal-Mart, good for the retail industry generally, and good for the State of Minnesota.

Atkins, who represents House District 52B in the southeast Metro, cited research by MIT professor Zeynep Ton, an expert on the retail sector, who found that businesses that make an investment in their retail workforce find that well-paid, knowledgeable, and experienced employees are a sales driver. Atkins also pointed to high-wage retailer Costco, where sales per employee are double that of low-wage rivals.

“It may seem counterintuitive, but retailers that pay higher wages make more money. Overwhelming evidence shows paying higher wages in the retail sector results in higher sales and higher productivity.”

Walmart’s decision to raise its minimum wage will benefit 500,000 hourly associates nationwide. It’s a reaction to a steady wave of organizing among Walmart associates, including strikes in more than 100 cities last year, the United Food and Commercial Workers union said.

“This is not an act of corporate benevolence,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said. “It would not have been possible without the courage of countless workers who are standing together, taking risks, and demanding wages and schedules that can support their families. Walmart is responding directly to calls from workers and their allies to pay a living wage.”

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Low-wage workers announce Black Friday Week of Action

November 18, 2014 by
Carrying a banner that read "End Poverty Wages in Minnesota," demonstrators march past the Midway Walmart's entrance in St. Paul on Black Friday.

Carrying a banner that read “End Poverty Wages in Minnesota,” demonstrators marched past the Midway Walmart’s entrance in St. Paul on Black Friday last year.

As the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear, workers who stock Walmart’s shelves, serve McDonald’s hamburgers and clean big-box stores are planning a week of action in the Twin Cities to draw attention to the low wages and poor conditions plaguing their industries.

The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the highest-profile shopping day of the year, with shoppers lining up overnight to take advantage of “doorbuster” deals at big-box stores.

But in recent years, Black Friday has also become a rallying point for retail workers, joining together in groups like OUR Walmart and CTUL, as well as their supporters in the community. Last year, a demonstration in St. Paul drew 1,000 people and resulted in the arrests of 26 activists engaging in civil disobedience.

This year, organizers locally are framing the Week of Action as a “fight to live, not just survive.”

According to a recently published report by the Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesotans who live in areas with the highest median household income live, on average, eight years longer than Minnesotans living in areas with the lowest median household incomes.

“This holiday season, low-wage workers from across the state of Minnesota are fighting to take back the years that companies are stealing off working families’ lives,” organizers said in an announcement of the Week of Action.

CTUL-final-logo1Planned events include:

  • “Strike for Our Lives,” 6-9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 28, The Quarry, 1520 New Brighton Blvd., Minneapolis.

Retail Janitors with CTUL, a low-wage worker center based in the Twin Cities, announced plans last week to strike on Black Friday.

Under the terms of a Responsible Contractor Policy the group reached with Target earlier this year, retail janitors are to enter into a dialogue with area cleaning contractors aimed at improving standards in the industry. Since then, the two companies that clean Target stores and a third company that cleans other stores in the Twin Cities have all opened dialogue with CTUL, but without making any meaningful achievements.

  • “March for Our Lives,” 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 28, Midway Walmart, University Ave. & N. Griggs St., St. Paul.

In addition to showing support for striking members of OUR Walmart, who are demanding $15 per hour, the march will build momentum behind calls for legislation requiring employers to offer paid sick days to their employees.

[Click here to add your name to a petition calling on Walmart to commit to $15 per hour and full-time schedules for workers who want one.]

  • Fast-food action, 6 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, Walker Library, 2880 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis.

Fast food workers who are organizing with CTUL will join home health care workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to continue the “Fight for $15.”

CTUL will announce other actions as details are finalized online. Also, the organization is accepting donations to the Retail Janitor Strike Fund.

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Bernard Brommer: In minimum-wage debate, some myths just won’t go away

February 27, 2014 by

mug-brommer-webLegislation has been introduced that would provide a much needed increase in the minimum wage after many years of no action. The principal parties and the arguments have remained essentially the same since the inception of minimum-wage laws many decades ago.

As we have learned over time, there are many myths that surround the debate, including many offered by opponents in an attempt to instill fear among workers and lawmakers. The myths remain essentially unchanged from the very beginning of the fight to establish the minimum wage in our nation. As happens so often in the economic and political arena, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The myths generally involve threatened job losses. Opponents claim that existing jobs will disappear and new jobs will not be created. While there may be a limited number of employers who elect to forgo creating a new job or even abolishing an existing position because of an increase in the minimum wage, there is no empirical evidence to support the claim that loss of actual or potential employment will be significant.

Opponents also claim the minimum wage exists primarily for new entrants into the work force, or for those who seek to gain some insight into the world of work, or those who are only working to gain a little spending money to squander on easy living at the malt shop or trinkets at the mall. This pig doesn’t fly either due to evidence that identifies significant numbers of workers who are attempting to support their families on a minimum wage. Try being the breadwinner and making ends meet at poverty-level income.

There are experts and economists of every stripe who have pontificated on the central ingredients of the minimum-wage debate. There is a voluminous body of work surrounding the minimum wage and its impact on the economy. Much of the evidence debunks the myths and focuses on the positive effects of an increase in the minimum wage.

Referencing the positive effects of the minimum wage requires recognition of the fact that increased wages result in increased spending. There is no denying that members of the workforce who earn the minimum wage will spend any increase on essential consumer items. Why, then, do retailers represented by their Retail Federation scramble to be first in line to oppose the minimum wage? Why wouldn’t they focus on the growing business and revenue generated by an increase in the minimum wage? It’s one of the many ironies of the minimum-wage debate.

In fact, one can come to the conclusion that the debate around increasing the minimum wage isn’t really about wages at all. What is really at the core of this fight is vehement opposition to the idea that our government is taking action on behalf of the working poor. This resentment is not new. Government is OK when it can be used and manipulated to advance the interests of the rich and powerful, but it should remain neutral and stay out of the marketplace when the working poor, the middle class and the labor movement are involved.

The struggle involving the creation of a measure of fairness and economic justice for human labor and the greed so inherent in our world today will continue. Action to increase the minimum wage is a small step in leveling the playing field and adding to the dignity and respect for those workers who labor for a measure of respect, recognition and reward.

– Bernard Brommer is a past president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest federation of labor unions.

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Study finds taxpayers subsidize big-box stores at cost of $150 million per year in Minnesota

November 22, 2013 by
blackfriday-sign3-web

Black Friday protests last year drew more than 200 people to the Midway Walmart in St. Paul.

Retail workers and activists who join the protest outside Walmart in St. Paul on Black Friday will be armed with a scathing new report shedding light on the public cost of poverty-level wages paid by Walmart, Target and other big-box department stores.

“At What Cost,” released Nov. 12 by the union-backed Minnesotans for a Fair Economy, reveals how Minnesota taxpayers, by picking up the cost of basic necessities thousands of retail workers can’t afford, are subsidizing big-box stores’ low wages.

“We estimate that over 20,000 big-box department store workers in Minnesota are enrolled in some form of public assistance program, either for themselves or family members, at a cost of over $150 million a year to taxpayers,” the report says.

[Click here to RSVP for Black Friday protests in the Twin Cities on Facebook!]

Not surprisingly, the majority of retail workers accessing safety-net programs for themselves or their families come from Walmart and Target. The report estimates 5,850 Target workers in Minnesota access public assistance at an annual cost to taxpayers of $44.7 million, while 5,311 Walmart employees statewide seek about $40.6 million in public assistance annually.

That these two retailers are the worst offenders is hardly surprising, considering the wages paid in their stores.

The average hourly wage of a Walmart sales associate, according to the report, is $8.81, while the average pay for Target’s frontline staff ranges from $8.10 per hour for cashiers to $8.34 per hour for “team members” on the sales floor.

A full-time worker earning those wages wouldn’t sniff the federal poverty line, which explains why so many turn to food stamps and other safety-net programs to support themselves and their families. What’s worse, over half of retail workers are “involuntarily part-time,” making it even harder to make ends meet without public assistance.

The public cost of health care for big-box store workers, meanwhile, is particularly taxing. Roughly half of Walmart associates and a third of Target “team members” are enrolled in the companies’ health insurance plans. Workers “say that the health plans are too expensive or inaccessible,” according to the report.

The report provides the first local look at findings introduced by Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in May.

Analyzing Medicaid data, the committee report found that a single 300-employee Walmart Supercenter in Wisconsin cost taxpayers between $900,000 and $1.75 million per year – or roughly $5,815 per employee.

At the conclusion of “At What Cost,” the authors offer three suggestions for reducing the strain on public assistance created by big-box retailers, particularly Target and Walmart.

Big-box retailers should pay a living wage of $14.41 per hour, state lawmakers in Minnesota should raise the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour and, the report says, retailers should “stop interfering with their employees’ rights to speak out for better jobs.”

“Big-box retail employers could listen to their employees’ calls for change, rather than retaliate against them for speaking out.”

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Protesters call on Walmart to stop targeting workers organizing for change

September 6, 2013 by
Members of OUR Walmart Minnesota and their supporters demonstrate outside the retailer's Midway location.

Members of OUR Walmart Minnesota and their supporters demonstrate outside the retailer’s Midway location.

Gabriel Teneyuque was among 130 Walmart workers who went on strike in June. Sixty of the workers he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with during that strike have been fired or targeted for discipline by the company for speaking out.

Yesterday, standing before a crowd of 50-plus protesters gathered outside the Midway Walmart in St. Paul, Teneyuque explained why he would continue speaking out despite the risks.

Tara Davunt works at the Walmart Supercenter in Hermantown. She is in her second stint with the company, and this time around, she said, “I set out to make a change.”

Tara Davunt works at the Walmart Supercenter in Hermantown. She is in her second stint with the company, and this time around, she said, “I set out to make a change.”

“I put in a hard day’s work. I take pride in my area. And like many other associates, I am still part time, and I make poverty wages,” said Teneyuque, an associate in Walmart’s Apple Valley store.

“We should never feel threatened. We should never have to wonder where our next meal is coming from – especially at the world’s largest employer. I’m speaking up today so we can all live better.”

The demonstration in St. Paul was one of more than 15 staged nationwide by members of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). Members of the group say they have seen an aggressive uptick in illegal retaliation against workers who speak out for better jobs at Walmart.

“OUR Walmart Minnesota is standing with workers and their supporters across this Minnesota to demand that Walmart’s Board of Directors put a stop to the company’s illegal firings and attempts to silence workers’ voices, and publicly commit to respect their freedom to speak out for better wages, safer work environments, and respect on the job,” the group said in a statement.

Diana Tastad, an organizer with OUR Walmart Minnesota, said the nationwide demonstrations had already produced positive results. Walmart, she said, had agreed to reinstate two of the fired workers.

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