In a move that didn’t surprise many, workers and activists around the country used the biggest shopping day of the year to voice their concerns about labor and fair wages.
Protests sprang up at 1,600 Walmart stores across the country on Black Friday, calling on the company to pay workers a $15 per hour minimum wage and provide full-time employment. The group of activists accused the Walton family of abusing their power and violating workers’ rights by retaliating against those who attempt to organize. According to protesters, the majority of Walmart workers make less than $25,000 annually while the company brings in $16 billion in profits.
In Los Angeles, Walmart workers went on strike to protest Walmart. Community activists fasted for 24 hours outside a Walmart to protest the hunger that they feel Walmart forces on families with low wages. In North Bergen, N.J., clergy members delivered a symbolic food bin to the store while chanting, “Dignity, not charity.” In Denver, a group of people dressed as Santa Claus and his elves delivered a bag of coal to a local Walmart with the support of community organizers.
In Phoenix, Sandra Sok, a nine-year employee of Walmart who is paid $400 every two weeks, walked off the job Thanksgiving eve for the first time.
The workers have found friends in elected officials across the country who have shown their support for their actions. Last week, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a statement of solidarity with those organizing.
“Across the country, workers are standing up to demand a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” read Schneiderman’s statement. “I’m proud to stand with them as they raise their voices to send an important message: No one who works full-time should have to struggle to feed their families. Over the past four years, I’ve fought to crack down on employers who cheat hardworking New Yorkers out of their wages. And while we will continue to do everything we can to enforce current laws, we must also move toward enacting new laws to remedy the pervasive income inequality that is plaguing our nation.”
Schneiderman was joined by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s in verbally applauding the efforts of organizers.
“When President Lincoln issued the first proclamation calling for a national day of Thanksgiving, he called for the American people ‘with one heart and one voice’ to give thanks for a year ‘filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies,’” read Murray’s statement. “As our families gather around the table to express thanks, we must remember that thousands of workers in our community and across the country, even on Thanksgiving, are forced to go to work and still struggle to make ends meet nonetheless.
“Those workers are standing up for better jobs,” continued Murray. “I stand up with them.”