Walmart Workers' Strike Gains Steam, Spreads Across Country

(Photo: OurWalmart/Facebook)

Walmart Workers' Strike Gains Steam, Spreads Across Country
Oct 10, 2012 | CommonDreams.org

Walmart workers went on strike for the second time in less than five days on Tuesday in protest of low wages, lack of benefits and Walmart's "attempts to silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job," according to United Food and Commercial Workers. Workers in 9 states and 12 cities took to the streets, picketing in front of stores and calling on Walmart to improve working conditions.

The first retail worker strike occurred last week in several stores across Los Angeles, CA and was the first retail worker strike in the five decades of Walmart’s existence.

On Tuesday workers walked off the job in Dallas, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, the Washington, D.C. area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Chicago, Orlando, and in parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Minnesota, said Dan Schlademan, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers' Making Change At Walmart campaign.

"I make $8.90 an hour and I've worked at Walmart for three years," said Colby Harris, 22, of Dallas. "Everyone at my store lives from check to check and borrows money from each other just to make it through the week."

"The six heirs to Walmart founder Sam Walton, meanwhile, are worth $89.5 billion, or as much as the bottom 41.5 percent of Americans combined," Huffington Post adds.

On Wednesday hundreds of Walmart workers demonstrated outside the company’s annual investor meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas.

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