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Wal-Mart workers protest nationally on Black Friday
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| Members of Bloomington's Unitarian Universalist church participated in the "Black Friday" protests at the Normal Wal-Mart. |
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While millions of shoppers flocked to Walmart stores nationwide on Black Friday, thousands of protesters descended on Walmarts to protest what they said were the retailer’s low wages.
About 300 people rallied Friday morning at a Walmart near Union Station in Washington, while 11 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested on charges of blocking traffic outside a Walmart on West Monroe Street in Chicago. At the Walmart in North Bergen, N.J., several hundred union members and others protested, including Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, whose placard said, “Walmart: Breaking the Promise of America.”
Ronee Hinton, a cashier at a Walmart in Laurel, Md., joined a morning protest at the Walmart in Washington, calling on the company to increase everyone’s pay to at least $15 and hour and give more workers full-time and less erratic schedules.
“It’s very hard on what I earn,” said Ms. Hinton, noting that she typically earns about $220 a week — she earns $8.40 an hour and often works about 26 hours a week. “Right now I’m on food stamps and am applying for medical assistance. It would help a lot to get full time.”
In recent days, leaders of Our Walmart, a union-backed group of Walmart employees, said there would be protests at 1,600 stores on Black Friday. Friday afternoon, officials from Our Walmart said that with the protests unfolding, they could not say how many Walmart employees had joined the rallies or how many protests had occurred.
It was the third year that Our Walmart sponsored protests on the day after Thanksgiving. The group, supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said many workers had engaged in a one-day strike, although it said many did not because they feared retaliation.
Walmart sought to play down the protests, saying few employees went on strike. In a statement, the company said: “Fewer associates called out absent over the past day than we see on a typical day. That tells us our associates are excited to be there for our customers at this special time, and they are not joining in made-for-TV demonstrations in any meaningful way.”
Walmart added, “The crowds are mostly made up of paid union demonstrators and they are not representative of our 1.3 million associates across the country.”
Walmart said that it paid competitive wages and that its employees, full time and part time, averaged nearly $12 an hour.
The demonstrators said they were also protesting retaliation by Walmart. Last January, the National Labor Relations Board accused the company of illegal activities in 14 states, in particular in the disciplining of about 70 workers — and firing more than a dozen of them — for participating in previous protests. Those accusations are pending, and Walmart said the labor board had not made any rulings that the company acted unlawfully against Our Walmart members.
Linda Haluska, a nighttime stocker in Glenwood, Ill., was among those arrested for obstructing traffic outside a Chicago Walmart. “I do believe not just this protest, but many protests I made in the past, they all make Walmart pay attention to us,” said Ms. Haluska, who earns $12.65 after nine years at Walmart. “Although they don’t give us credit, they listen to us.”
The group insists that Walmart has responded to its protests by announcing it would make more workers full time and start paying all its employees more than the minimum wage.
Kim Bobo, executive directive of Interfaith Worker Justice, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, demonstrated with about 40 people, including two priests, at two Walmarts in Alexandria, Va. She said many members of the clergy had urged their parishioners to join in.
“We talk with everybody in congregations — plan your Thursday with your family and your Friday morning at your local Walmart,” she said. “That’s what a lot of social activists are beginning to do. That’s becoming part of our tradition.”
A version of this article appears in print on November 29, 2014, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Protesters Demand Wage Increases and Schedule Changes From Walmart.
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