Five activists were arrested at Yahoo! headquarters Monday afternoon in a protest over the firing of eleven Walmart employees who this month went on strike. The planned civil disobedience action followed an hour-long demonstration in the Yahoo! lobby; about thirty workers and supporters gathered to demand a meeting with Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, who joined Walmart\u2019s board last year.<\/p>\n
As The Nation <\/em>first reported<\/a>, the union-backed group OUR Walmart is alleging a new wave of retaliation against Walmart worker-activists, with terminations or other discipline targeting at least twenty-six of the hundred-some employees who traveled to Arkansas to protest<\/a> the retail giant\u2019s June 7 shareholder meeting. Congressmen Keith Ellison (DFL-MN) and Alan Grayson both condemned the firings in Saturday comments to The Nation<\/em>; Ellison, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called Walmart\u2019s actions \u201ccompletely unjust and illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n A Yahoo! spokesperson declined a request for comment regarding the protest and the alleged retaliation. Asked about the firings and disciplinary \u201ccoachings\u201d this morning, Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg e-mailed that \u201cour decision had everything to do with what was a violation of attendance policy and nothing to do with a specific protest.\u201d<\/p>\n A few workers arrived in the Yahoo! lobby just after noon today, and told the receptionist they were there to meet Mayer. After being told they couldn\u2019t see her without an appointment, an organizer announced that they planned to stay until Mayer became available. One OUR Walmart member told the receptionist that the firings were an emergency; another offered to meet Mayer on her lunch break. Then a larger group arrived and lined up on either side of the lobby. Standing under a purple pillar of Yahoo logos, workers held signs, locked arms and told stories about their own firings or their co-workers\u2019. Some had their children with them; one woman declared the scene \u201ccute\u201d as she walked between the rows of protesters. A handful of Yahoo! employees watched from a balcony above. Then Yahoo! management declared the lobby shut down, and a staffer told the crowd that he would call the police if they didn\u2019t leave.<\/p>\n \u201cI was nervous at first when I walked in here, but I\u2019m really calm now,\u201d Placerville, California, Walmart employee Barbara Collins told The Nation <\/em>before being arrested. Collins said she expects to be retaliated against by Walmart when she returns to work, but that \u201cit\u2019s amazing what happens when you\u2019re over that fear.\u201d Looking at her assembled co-workers from other cities, she added, \u201cWalmart created that fear, and these amazing people that we have in our family now helped me get over it.\u201d Collins took part in the civil disobedience along with two employees fired by Walmart, and two members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union who\u2019ve taken leaves of absence from their jobs at Safeway to work on the OUR Walmart campaign. \u201cYou really find your backbone,\u201d said Collins. \u201cAnd it\u2019s OK to stand for what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n After the police arrived, those activists not planning to be arrested moved their protest outdoors; the remaining five sat down on the floor. An organizer told fired worker Yvette Brown that Brown\u2019s mother\u2013also an OUR Walmart activist, and also fired over the weekend\u2013had started crying outside when describing how proud she was of Brown for choosing to commit civil disobedience. At that point Brown began tearing up. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through many challenges in life,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd just to have that moment where my mom definitely told me she was proud of me, that\u2019s the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after, several police officers entered, gave the five activists a final chance to leave and then had them stand up one at a time and put their hands behind their backs. One visibly winced as an officer put zip ties around his wrists; a police officer and a Yahoo! staffer both took photos of each arrest. Then the five were escorted into a police van as their co-workers on the sidewalk leafleted to passers-by, hoisted umbrellas that together read \u201cMARISSA ACT NOW\u201d and chanted \u201cWhose Walmart? OUR Walmart!\u201d<\/p>\n Over the two years since its founding, OUR Walmart has repeatedly alleged retaliation and intimidation against its members, as have allied groups organizing subcontracted Walmart warehouse workers. But the latest allegations\u2013including nine firings and eighteen other disciplinary actions in the space of three days\u2013are the most serious ones since 2005, when Walmart shut down a Quebec store months after workers there won collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n Asked Saturday about OUR Walmart\u2019s contention that this month\u2019s work stoppage was an \u201cUnfair Labor Practices Strike\u201d protesting retaliation\u2013a type of action that receives greater legal protection\u2013Walmart\u2019s Lundberg wrote, \u201cWe evaluate every situation individually, but as a general rule, the law does not protect hit-and-run intermittent work stoppages that are part of a coordinated union plan.\u201d<\/p>\n