At a protest outside a Walmart store in Ontario, California, Santa Claus was among the first of those arrested for demanding better wages and treatment for workers. (Photo: Twitpic / @wwunited)At a protest outside a Walmart store in Ontario, California on Friday morning, a group of worker advocates, including a man dressed as Santa Claus, were arrested for blocking traffic as they demanded attention for the plight of Walmart employees, store contractors, and their families.
With as a many as 1,500 separate protests planned for Walmart locations on the day known as “Black Friday,” workers for the retail giant and supporters of their cause to win better treatment and increased wages are using the year’s busiest shopping day to draw attention to the growing movement of low-wage workers rising up against poverty and disrespect in the workplace.
Under the hashtag #walmartstrikers, Twitter users are tracking updates and posting photos from actions across the country:
Among the journalists who have most closely followed the growth of the Walmart workers movement led by the group OUR Walmart (@forrespect), Salon.com’s Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson) and The Nation’s Allison Kilkenny (@allisonkilkenny)were live-tweeting the day’s unfolding events:
As Eidelson reported Friday:
Defying the nation’s top employer and a business model that defines the new U.S. economy, Wal-Mart employees and allies will try to oust shopping headlines with strike stories, and throw a retail giant off its heels on what should be its happiest day of the year. By day’s end, organizers expect 1,500 total protests in cities ranging from Los Angeles, Calif., to Wasilla, Alaska, including arrests in nine cities: Seacaucus, New Jersey; Alexandria, Virginia; Dallas; Minneapolis; Chicago; Seattle; and Ontario, San Leandro, and Sacramento, California.
“Like my mom always said, ‘You see something that’s not right, it’s your turn to fix it,” said 45-year-old Chicago Wal-Mart employee Myron Byrd, who plans to be arrested in his first act of civil disobedience today. “And you can’t do it by yourself — you have to do it with others.” Byrd said he was driven to action by “high school”-level pay and workplace disrespect, and inspired by the courage of fellow workers and his mother’s civil rights legacy. “I’m sacrificing myself, along with others, to do this,” he told me, “to show Wal-Mart that hey, I’m not afraid, they not afraid, we not afraid.” In an e-mail to reporters, Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar said that “planned arrests” were “just another way to make these orchestrated events seem newsworthy,” and that “these aren’t real protests by real Walmart associates.”
Whether today’s action is bigger than last year’s “Black Friday” showdown remains to be seen, and likely depends on how you count: Would more protests, and more protesters, make up for a retaliation-fueled reduction in the number of Wal-Mart employees who go on strike to join them?
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Source: Common Dreams