Huffington Post – by Kathleen Miles
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving regarded as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, may be dramatically different this year.
Organizers are planning a nationwide strike against Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, and are banking on a new strategy: online organizing.
Labor organizers are working with social action nonprofit Engage Network as well as corporate watchdog nonprofit Corporate Action Network to pull off what they are calling a “viral” — meaning national and spreading online — strike.
Walmart workers interested in joining the day of action are directed to this website, either to find a store near them with an organized strike or to “adopt an event” at a store near them.
Brian Young, cofounder of the Corporate Action Network, said on a conference call coordinated by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Thursday, that organizers cannot cover the roughly 4,000 Walmarts across the country, but enabling self-appointed leaders online has widened and decentralized the campaign.
Supporters can also sponsor a striking worker, who may be losing wages in order to strike, by donating grocery gift cards. The campaign has raised more than $13,500worth of donations toward grocery gift cards since Oct. 15 — a figure that doesn’t include significant funds raised through mailed-in checks, Jamie Way, of the UFCW, told HuffPost.
The campaign is also mobilizing strikers and supporters through a Facebook app,multiple Facebook pages, a Tumblr and Twitter with the hashtag #walmartstrikers.
“This online mobilization, in addition to traditional on-the-ground organizing, has allowed the campaign to reach into the rural corners of the country that might have otherwise been overlooked,” Marianne Manilov, cofounder of the Engage Network, said on the conference call.
She pointed to a group of renegade workers in Oklahoma who mobilized in October. “A completely unorganized set of workers in Oklahomaspontaneously went out on strike and held their own type of action without any organizer or … connection with the broader organization,” she said. “This is what organizing looks like in the age of Occupy.”
The outreach leading up to Black Friday follows a series of unprecedented actions taken by Walmart workers against their employer and working conditions. In October, for the first time in the company’s 50-year history, more than 70 workers at multiple Los Angeles-area Walmart stores walked off the job, even though their jobs are not protected by an official union. The strike had a ripple effect, causing strikes in 12 other cities, in large part through online organizing.
The success of these strikes, as well as one over the summer touted as the largest ever protest against the company, and a six-day pilgrimmage of warehouse workers in September, would not have been possible without Facebook, Twitter and other web sites, Young said.
“Making Change at Walmart,” which organized the demonstrations and is a campaign affiliated with the UFCW union, has over 25,000 supporters on Facebook.
Although it does not officially represent Walmart workers, OUR Walmart, organized by the Making Change campaign, acts like a union to fight for the rights of Walmart workers. OUR Walmart, which was founded last year with 100 members, now hasover 14,000 supporters on Facebook.
Corey Parker, a Walmart worker from Mississippi, said on the conference call that he became active with OUR Walmart after finding out about it through a HuffPost article on Facebook. Now, he has mobilized workers at his store to strike on Black Friday because, he said, he realized that “not being able to make a living was not just an issue at my store.”
Adding fuel to movement, Walmart announced Thursday that it will kick off its Black Friday sale at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, its earliest start ever.
“Lots and lots of Walmart workers are going to be forced to not have Thanksgiving because they’re going to be preparing all day for the busiest shopping day of the year,” Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, said on the conference call. “This essentially cancels Thanksgiving for hundreds of thousands of workers.”
“It’s not like Walmart is financially hurting. It’s not like they’re not making unbelievable sums of money. The price of this is really decimating an important family day in our country.”
But Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo said of the sale, “Last year, our highest customer traffic was during the 10 p.m. hour and, according to the National Retail Federation, Thanksgiving night shopping has surged over the past three years.”
“Most of our stores are open 24 hours and, historically, much of our Black Friday preparations have been done on Thanksgiving, which is not unusual in the retail industry,” he said, adding that the strikes planned for Black Friday, will not “have any impact on our business.”
Regarding the action over the last few months, Restivo said, “While the opinions expressed by this group don’t represent the views of the vast majority of more than 1.3 million Walmart associates in the U.S., when our associates bring forward concerns, we listen.”
In September, dozens of Walmart-contracted warehouse workers in Southern California’s Inland Empire walked off the job and went on a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage to protest working conditions and retaliation for speaking up.
More than a month later, the warehouse company NFI responded to some of the strikers’ working condition requests. “Just in the last week, we’ve seen the warehouse operators scrambling to replace broken and unsafe equipment, they’ve rented fans to increase ventilation, and they’ve added more water coolers,” Elizabeth Brennan, communications director for Warehouse Workers United, said on the conference call.
However, the strikers who returned to work have continued to face retaliation, many times getting their hours cut from 35 down to eight, she said. Some of these warehouse workers will join striking Walmart workers on Black Friday, Brennan said.
Excluding the retaliation, organizers hope to see that type of positive response after Black Friday. And with an online system open to anyone who wants to start a strike in his or her local Walmart, Manilov hopes both the demonstration and response will be broad-reaching.
“This is one of the first labor campaigns to really fully embrace the potential of online-to-offline labor organizing,” she said. “As this captures fire, its potential is limitless.”
I’m behind these workers 100%. I’ve NEVER liked Walmart, or their policies, therefore I never shop there, excluding a one-time emergency when I went camping a few months ago. This POS corporation is the epitomy of the apathy shown towards the needs of the workforce in most corporations these days. I consider it to be a mirror image of Monsanto – in the retail world, as far as any shred of humanitarianism is concerned.
I still say this is going to turn into a George Soros Occupy type movement. Why is this Walmart thing happening now after all this time? I think it is more than a coincidence that this all started happening a few months ago when China and Japan were fighting for that ridiculous island and the U.S. was encouraging it. This whole Walmart thing is a prelude to getting people angry at China for their shitty products and bad work ethic, so they can justify going to war with them in the future. Not that I sympathize with China’s work ethic by any means. I’m saying I think the elite are just using this as propaganda to try and steer hatred and resentment of any kind to China, so when the time comes for the elite to attack or sanction China for their own corrupt purposes, they will already have the people’s and the sheeple’s support backing them, but of course, for all the wrong reasons. It’s a total Zionist trick. This is just the start of many things against China to come. I guarantee it.
Like BOB MARLEY said in his song`s – ” Get up stand up, stand up for your rights – Get up stand up, Don`t give up the fight ” . Yea , I like Bob Marley music. Yes I do !! Yea he was good I think.
Coincidences can happen, but I never trust them. I like how you put these two rather disconnected events together and suggested such a possibility. I would rather give the benefit of the doubt that the actual target is Wal-Mart and not China, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this protest is steered to misdirect the attention towards who supplies them, rather than their atrocious labour practices.
I do not much like Michael Moore but just see what he has on Walmart in his dvd – ” Capitalism: A Love Story ” – it is realy good dirt on wally world.
Walmart… Burn, Baby, Burn!!! I could see the revolution starting at Walmart on a Black Friday all across the nation… maybe, the Patriots ought to show up in support, after all it is the largest corporation in America. Might as well take out the biggest. Once SHTF they will be wiped out anyway. All of the patriots that I know that aren’t preparing by stocking up on food supplies, say they don’t need to stock up, they will be looting Walmart first. They aren’t the brightest bunch, but they have a lot of guns and ammo. I wonder why I can’t get them to see the need to stock on other things… hehe
The future is looking better–FOR K-MART
Don’t forget Walgreens and Target.
Not only should workers at Wal-Mart strike Black Friday the American people should boycott the corporate behemoththis Black Friday and kick ‘em right square where it hurts them most, their pocketbooks! I despise Wal-Mart so much that I could care less about paying a bit more for the same thing somewhere else. They don’t carry a single item I can’t get somewhere where the employees have a liveable wage, benefits and a REAL smile on there face. Wal-Mart sucks! What needs to roll at Wal-Mart are the heads at the top, not the prices in the stores!
It’s not just Black Friday. To hit them in the pocketbooks means you need to be consistent and avoid them altogether. Still, I have great respect for you and your comments. You see what is going on.
I suspect, that for most people, any form of “alternatives” to the status quo, are only slowly discovered, and so, I’ve put together a basic list, that people can use to get started:
Getting your money out of any TBTF Bank is ONE thing that you can do. However, there are many, many other things that we can all do, too!
Here are just a few:
1) BOYCOTT – learn this concept well, and EMPLOY IT – against those enslaving you!
2) THINK for yourself. TURN OFF the IDIOT-BOX (TV) OR THROW IT AWAY!
3) QUESTION all ‘authority’ (Big Business/Government, Big Religion, Big Media, etc.)
4) GET OUT, AND/OR STAY OUT, OF DEBT!
5) USE CASH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Avoid using credit, debit, and customer loyalty cards. Use cash for all your “mainstream” transactions. Otherwise, try barter!
6) Bank at a local credit union!
7) VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLARS! (What do you support, with your time, money, and energy?)
8) Contact your Representatives on critical issues: such as “END THE FED!”
9) Re-read the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It isn’t about hunting. It’s about tyranny.
10)Buy (products) Made in U.S.A. Go to “startpage” search engine, then simply type in whatever it is you are looking for, followed by “Made in USA”. If we wish to put AMERICANS back to work. We really need to start buying MADE IN USA!
11)Invest in precious metals, primarily SILVER (and gold) bullion.
12)Buy ORGANIC food! Support your local Organic Farmer, food store or Co-op!
13)Start your own garden using NON-GMO, non-hybrid seeds!
14)Pray or meditate – reduce your stress! De-stress! Stress weakens your immune system. Some people take a hot bath, or jump in the hot tub, and the stress is gone!
15)Read a book, you know, an actual book! Try anything by Eustace Mullins.
16)Open your mind! Exercise your brain muscle!
17)Listen to soothing classical, jazz, ambient or other music you thoroughly enjoy!
18)CUT BACK ON OIL AND GAS CONSUMPTION!
19)Take a quality daily multi-vitamin!
EXPAND UPON THIS LIST AND SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
As for ORGANIC food companies, here is some very practical, ‘actionable’ information:
Which, so-called “organic” food companies are fighting Prop 37 in California, to stop GMO labeling, and which organic food companies are funding/supporting GMO labeling (ie, your right to know)?
http://www.cornucopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/prop37-poster.jpeg
Boycott the Organic and ‘Natural’ Traitor Brands Whose Parent Companies Oppose Your Right to Know (ie, who opposed CA Prop 37)
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_26121.cfm
Which Mega-Corporations own which “organic” food companies?
https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html
Download the “NON-GMO Shopping Guide” here:
http://gmo.mercola.com/sites/gmo/shopping-guide.aspx
In Similar News:
Occupy Wall Street Takes to Agorism and Starts a “People’s Bailout”
http://theintelhub.com/2012/11/10/occupy-wall-street-takes-to-agorism-and-starts-a-peoples-bailout/
I like your list and would agree with 90% of it. However, I live in Canada, so I hope you don’t mind if I prefer to buy my own local produce. With the severe food contamination that goes on in the US (Radioactivity in California, BP oil spill, GMO poison, to name a few), I avoid buying US products when possible, even if it means not having key ingredients for the food I make.
I know it’s nearly impossible to be debt-free in this world, but I think it is a good idea to try. Don’t be tempted or pressured by that new car or a new gadget that will run you into debt. It’s not worth the prestige, the fame, or whatever other nonsense you think you get from the items. Before I started working full-time, I was up to my butt in debt. I am happy to say for the last 4 years I am debt-free, so every paycheque that comes my way, I get to keep the whole thing. No agencies or companies (Who never have to work a minute in their lives) taking a huge chunk of it from my slave labour. It’s all mine.
I also like to play a few video games for stress-relief, but not any of those violent, shooting types. I prefer puzzle games. They let me relax and also put my brain to work as I try to survive as long as I can.
It’s funny. When I am at work, I hear so many people talk about Wal-Mart this and great sales that. It makes me question if there is anything actually working between their ears. Are so many people really that complacent with their lives that they obsess over how they can save a nickel here and there? I don’t see what is so great about money. I prefer to pay a little more and keep better paying jobs going. Wal-Mart is simply the anti-everything for any economy. It is totally parasitic and tries to destroy their host cities/towns whenever they can to create a dependence for them. Up here in Canada, I watched as Wal-Mart shut down a store where the staff voted to form a union. They shut down the place and busted the union just to prove a point. My workplace gives out monthly attendance prizes (so people actually bother to show up) and they tried to shove me with a $100 gift card once for Wal-Mart. I flat out told them I would rather burn the card than accept it, so if they want to waste the money, it was up to them. Eventually, I was allowed to pick out my own gift card for elsewhere and submit the receipt for a refund.
Wal-mart.. strike. ok with me, I asked a little while ago the check out girl who helped us on our way with the purchased goods, whether she knew about this. She answered to be unaware of this.
One thought tho
If the designed future for us (A Collapsed US of A.) states, that Walmart will close, over giving in to the demands of the strikers? They one of the biggest distributors. And at this moment, just before the winter, and far before the seeding season has started. Any Consequences? And FEMA can’t even handle NJ + NY.. let alone organise and pull of distribution to the whole country. Correct me, If I am wrong.
“And FEMA can’t even handle NJ + NY….”
That might be difficult to understand IF… FEMA had actually been created to deal with emergencies and disasters in the first place.
Not so.
I am surprised nobody has mentioned author Kay Bryan Jones and her story of discrimination during her 20 years as a Walmart insider. I read her book The American Retailer about a year ago where she described her many years working at Walmart and foretold exactly what is happening now.