Walmart protesters in Dallas on Nov. 29, 2013
US Police in several cities arrested people who were protesting on behalf of Walmart workers on the busiest shopping day of the year in the US.
Over a hundred warehouse workers and other Walmart employees from different stores in Southern California gathered in front of a Walmart store in Ontario, California, to demand better wages and working conditions on a day known in the US as Black Friday.
Carrying placards that read �œLivable Wages Over Greed,” the protesters marched to a nearby intersection where police officers in riot gear arrested up to ten people.
�œWalmart has the responsibility to this community to do better,” Lupe Palma, director for Walmart’s warehouse workers, told San Bernardino Sun.
Among those arrested in Ontario was a man dressed up as Santa Clause who said, �œI’m going to get arrested for civil disobedience.”
Protests against Walmart were held in several other cities across the US including Chicago, Illinois; Alexandria, Virginia; Quincey, Massachusetts; Orlando, Florida; Bellevue, Washington; Lakeside, Colorado; and Hyattsville, Maryland.
This is the second year people across the US have protested on behalf of Walmart workers on Black Friday, a name which is derived from the period when retailers traditionally turn a profit, or move out of the red into the black.
The largest US retailer, Walmart, says it paid over 475,000 of its associates more than $25,000 last year, but remains silent on the fact that majority of people working at the company earned less than $25,000.
A report by the think tank Demos showed the corporation can afford to pay all of its workers at least this amount with no need to raise prices.
ISH/ISH
Source: Press TV