Walmart walkout, a protest by employees planned for Black Friday, may have crippling effects for the company on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
Walmart employees are holding walkouts across the country as they protest against low wages, spiking health care premiums, and alleged retaliation from management.
First, on Wednesday, about a dozen workers in Walmart's distribution warehouses in Southern California walked out, followed the next day by 30 more from six stores in the Seattle area. More upcoming strikes and protests are expected at stores in Chicago, Miami, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.
The Walmart walkout employees are part of a union-backed employee coalition called Making Change at Wal-Mart, and they warn that this is only the beginning of a wave of protests and strikes leading up to next week's Black Friday.
"We have to borrow money from each other just to make it to work," said Colby Harris, who earns $8.90 an hour after having worked at a Wal-Mart in Lancaster, Tex., for three years. "I'm on my lunch break right now, and I have two dollars in my pocket. I'm deciding whether to use it to buy lunch or to hold on to it for next week."
Walmart and other large retail stores like Target and Sears are planning to open retail stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Employees said they weren't given a choice as to whether they would work on Thanksgiving and were told to do so with little warning. The workers said that when they complain about scheduling and other problems, management cuts their hours or fires people.
Charlene Fletcher, who works with her husband William at a Walmart in Duarte, Calif., became enraged when she learned that both were scheduled to work on Thanksgiving, missing the holiday with their children, ages 2 and 5, according to Fox News.
"It's heartbreaking to miss the holiday with them, and it's just one more way that Walmart is showing its disregard for our families," Fletcher said in a statement. "But when our co-workers speak out about problems like these, Walmart turns their schedules upside down, cuts their hours and even fires people. We're going on strike for an end to Walmart's attempts to silence its workers.
