Calling for a Change of Course at the Country's Largest Company,
Calls for Good, Safe Jobs at Walmart Stores and Suppliers and an End of the Attempts to Silence Associates Echoing Nationwide
IOWA - Today, striking workers from Davenport will be walking off the job and rallying with community supporters before getting on a bus to take their concerns to Walmart executives and shareholders in Bentonville, Arkansas. They will join workers who went on strike in California, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington State earlier in the week. With community leaders rallying in support of workers at their stores and online, the strikers will join the nationwide "Ride for Respect" to Walmart's annual shareholders meeting.
In the spirit of the civil rights movement, the "Ride for Respect" is a weeklong, nationwide caravan during which workers and supporters will be voicing the direct impact that Walmart is having on their lives and our economy - on the road and online.
WHO: OUR Walmart Strikers, Community Supporters
WHAT: Rally and send-off event for striking Walmart workers
WHEN: Thursday, May 30 at Noon
WHERE: UFCW Local 431
1401 W. 3rd St.
Davenport, IA 52802
With community supporters echoing their calls nationally, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), a national organization of Walmart employees speaking out for a stronger company and economy, has been calling on the country's largest employer to create better jobs. With more than $16 billion in annual profits and executives making 1,000 times more than the average Walmart employee, a growing number of associates and supporters nationwide are calling for the company to provide full-time work with a minimum salary of $25,000 a year so that workers at the country's largest employer don't have to rely on tax-payer funded programs to support their families.
Despite Walmart workers' struggle to support their families, plummeting customer service ratings, weak store sales due to understaffing, and preventable tragedies in the supply chain, Walmart has attempted to silence these voices through illegal retaliation, meritless lawsuits and even firing workers. Meanwhile, support for these calls for change has grown since the historic Black Friday strikes and protests at 1,000 Walmart stores last fall.
In a sign that Walmart is hearing these concerns, the company made an announcement on scheduling in April on the same day that hundreds of workers and supporters confronted store managers at locations nationwide. Still, even as the company spends millions of dollars on an ad campaign about jobs at the company and OUR Walmart members try to ensure newly proposed policies are implemented quickly and effectively, a new survey shows Walmart employees are largely unhappy with their employer and many longtime employees are not getting the hours they need. At the same time, Walmart's reactions to dangerous working conditions at warehouses and supplier factories in Bangladesh and across the globe have been met with empty promises that continue to put workers at risk.
Follow the caravan on Twitter at #WalmartStrikers.
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UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.
