Category Archives: strike
Walmart Strike Spreads to Texas as Organizers Promise Massive Black Friday Protest
The Nation
Nov. 16, 2012
By Josh Eidelson
This morning, at 10 am local time, Dallas Walmart store workers are headed back to the picket line. Theirs is the latest in a string of strikes that hit a California warehouse Wednesday and Seattle stores on Thursday. There’s more where that came from: On a Thursday call with reporters, union-backed Walmart worker groups said to expect a thousand strikes or demonstrations spread over nine days, culminating in an unprecedented array of “Black Friday” disruptions. That news follows a major legal settlement by a Walmart contractor that organizers credited to a 2011 sit-in at Hershey’s Chocolate.
Dallas striker Colby Harris emphasized that despite issues with low pay and repeated retaliation, he’s committed to remaining a Walmart worker. “If you leave this job, you’re going to face retaliation in some form somewhere else…,” he said last night. “If you change Walmart, and you change corporate America, it can really better a lot of people’s lives.”
Harris told The Nation that the main purpose of today’s picketing outside his Dallas store is to send a message to the workers inside: that “you can speak up and not get punished.” What if Walmart retaliates? “We’ll just take more actions…,” said Harris. “It will not be accepted or tolerated.” He said that going on strike last month heightened his confidence: “I’m not as nervous to take actions now. I know I’ve done it before…I can do it again.”
Workers Across Europe Synchronize Protests
New York Times
Nov. 14, 2012
By RAPHAEL MINDER
MADRID — Workers across Europe mounted coordinated protests on Wednesday against government austerity policies in a time of economic malaise.
In Spain and Portugal, workers staged general strikes. Unions in Greece, Italy, France and Belgium joined in protests and work stoppages to show solidarity with striking workers elsewhere.
The breadth of the demonstrations, which affected scores of cities, reflected widespread unhappiness with high unemployment, slowing growth and worsening economic prospects in Europe, and the resistance that European governments confront as they push plans for more belt tightening. Occasional clashes with the police were reported in some cities.
Greece passes new spending cuts amid protests
Los Angeles Times
Nov. 7, 2012
By Anthee Carassava
ATHENS — As tens of thousands of protesters shouting “Resist!” swarmed the streets outside, Greece’s Parliament on Wednesday narrowly approved its toughest batch of spending cuts yet in order to secure vital bailout funding from its European peers.
The legislation, including a controversial slate of fiscal and structural measures intended to save the state about $17 billion and ward off a messy financial collapse, was backed by 153 lawmakers of the 300-seat Parliament. Voting no were 128 lawmakers, including three from the conservative and leftist parties supporting the ruling coalition government.
“Yes,” Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told Parliament, “some of these spending cuts are unfair.”
London protesters bash Britain’s austerity drive
Associated Press
Oct. 20, 2012
By Raphael Slatter
LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on the British capital Saturday in a noisy but peaceful protest at a government austerity drive aimed at slashing the nation’s debt.
Unions, anti-war campaigners, left-wing leaders, community groups and other activists poured down London’s streets in a demonstration against reductions to public sector spending which officials are pushing through in order to rein in the Britain’s debt, which stands at more than 1 trillion pounds ($1.7 trillion).
Although the austerity program has had some modest successes — the country’s deficit has dropped slightly — the U.K. economy has shrunk for three consecutive quarters amid cuts at home and economic turmoil on the continent.
Walmart Workers Threaten Black Friday Action
ABC News
Oct. 10, 2012
By Abby Ellin and Alan Farnham
The latest news in the Walmart labor protests — which have included walkouts and marches in Dallas, San Diego, Chicago and Los Angeles — is the threat of a strike on Black Friday. That’s the day after Thanksgiving, widely considered the busiest, and most lucrative, retail day of the year.
Some 200 angry protesters showed up at a meeting of investors and analysts earlier today at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. Under discussion at the meeting was Walmart’s intent to go head-to-head with Amazon and offer same-day delivery.
Walmart is the world’s largest private employer and has long been a target of workers’ rights groups, who advocate higher wages, more flexibility in hours and an end to the punishments (reduced shifts, for instance) they claim are meted out to workers seeking to unionize.
Wal-Mart workers on strike
Salon
Oct. 4, 2012
By Josh Eidelson
Today, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s 50-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass rally outside a Pico Rivera, Calif., store. This is the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world.
“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared…” Pico Rivera Wal-Mart employee Evelin Cruz told Salon yesterday about her decision to join today’s strike. “But I think the time has come, so they take notice that these associates are tired of all the issues in the stores, all the management retaliating against you.” Rivera, a department manager, said her store is chronically understaffed: “They expect the work to be done, without having the people to do the job.”
