88 workers in 28 stores have gone on strike in 12 different cities. Considering the company employs 1.4M people, that’s not much, but it’s the first time retail workers have ever struck Wal-Mart.
The workers are protesting company attempts to “silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job,” according to a United Food and Commercial Workers news release. Walmart workers, who are not unionized, have long complained of low pay and a lack of benefits.
I wish ’em luck.
If it was as successful as the organizing efforts have been at Fresh and Easy, they have nothing to fear.
IIRC Target, Fresh and Easy, Trader Joe’s, and Walmart are all nonunion grocers making considerable inroads into UFCW’s largely unionized turf. This is not going well for them, and given the direction most of their organized client stores are headed (Albertsons, in particular, just underwent a round of contraction, and Ralphs before them shuttered a number of stores), they must organize some of the competition or face extinction themselves. This is not a fight they can win.