With Biggest Strike Against Biggest Employer, Walmart Workers Make History Again

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171435/biggest-strike-against-biggest-employer-walmart-workers-make-history-again

Hanover and Severn, MD—For about twenty-four hours, Walmart workers, union members and a slew of other activists pulled off the largest-ever US strike against the largest employer in the world. According to organizers, strikes hit a hundred US cities, with hundreds of retail workers walking off the job (last month‘s strikes drew 160). Organizers say they also hit their goal of a thousand total protests, with all but four states holding at least one. In the process, they notched a further escalation against the corporation that’s done more than any other to frustrate the ambitions and undermine the achievements of organized labor in the United States.

"I’m so happy that this is history, that my grandkids can learn from this to stand up for themselves,” Miami striker Elaine Rozier told The Nation Thursday night. Before, “I always used to sit back and not say anything…. I’m proud of myself tonight.”

Rozier and her co-workers kicked off the Black Friday strike around 7:30 EST Thursday night; it rolled from Miami through big cities like Chicago and smaller ones like Tulsa, where overnight stocker Christopher Bentley Owen, agitated by an intimidating “captive audience” meeting, decided at the last minute to join the organization and became his store’s sole striker. After holding back because he didn’t plan to stay in his job for long, said Owen, he recognized that millions of other low-wage workers offer the same reason not to get involved. “Meanwhile,” he said, “there are millions of people in those jobs…at some point, people have to get together.”

By 9 am Friday, Walmart had already sent out a statement announcing its “best ever Black Friday events,” claiming that only fifty workers were on strike, and dismissing the action as a failure. Organizers accused Walmart of making up numbers, and noted that the company’s aggressive efforts to discourage participation undermined its supposed indifference.

[marmar]

1. They announced it at 9 a.m. Friday? Wal-Mart spin control jumped the gun a bit.

nt

[xchrom]

2. right? nt

[Starry Messenger]

3. K&R

[me b zola]

4. K&R

[dotymed]

5. I don't subscribe to the Nation.

I couldn't read the article. I bet that TN. was one of the 4 states where strikes did not occur. I have never seen a state whose residents accept the status quo as unchangeable and willingly admire the elite as a status they can obtain.....lottery mentality.

[socialist_n_TN]

6. Agreed. There's not much economic populism here.........

but there is some at least, led by minorities. Latinos at that.

This struggle will not be won in a day though. It will take a long time and be a gradual build. As the arguments for economic democracy or at least populism sink deeper and deeper into the general mindset of the country, even Tennessee will eventually follow along.

[Revlon10]

7. For all you Hillary lovers this is for you

Walmart and the Clinton connection

Ever wonder how Wal Mart got so huge?


"Hillary Clinton was not only a partner in Rose Law but also has a lifetime board seat on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors. She was appointed to the Wal-Mart Board by Sam Walton in 1985 without a vote and without ownership of any stake in the company, something that has never happened before or since, but Hillary hasn’t acknowledged her role within the company publicly in many years. She likes to try to distance herself from Wal-Mart’s policies & insulate herself from responsibility for the devastating impact Wal-Mart’s purchasing policies have had on the American economy over the past two decades. The press has helped her in this effort, but many of you know this despite the news blackout of these things over the years.

It was Rose Law which funneled monies for Bill Clinton’s last campaign for Arkansas governor from Wal-Mart and into his campaign in exchange for his commitment to support “right to work” legislation Wal-Mart and Arkansas’ elite wanted amended to Arkansas’ constitution in 1990. He campaigned against the legislation but flipped after he was re-elected & signed it into law. The right to work legislation stripped the Arkansas people’s right to assembly within the workplace and locked labor unions out of the state for all practical purposes. The “hire at will” provisions within the “right to work” legislation allows employers to fire employees at will, without cause and without remedy available to the employee. In Arkansas workers have fewer rights than in most any other state, and that is by design. This was achieved by bribing both parties through the cover of Rose Law firm. Hillary was a key inside player in these events.

I have heard people say things like, “Hillary and Bill were just smart that’s all,” or “that happens everywhere,” but I dispute both of those statements. Is it smart to undermine the economy of your own nation for the private profits of corporate thugs within your state? I call that corrupt, not smart, and if it does happen everywhere then it is wrong and illegal everywhere just as it was in Arkansas.

Fast forward to Bill’s first term as President where he signed NAFTA, GATT, WTO & granted favored nation trading status to the enemy of liberty Communist China. Again it was the Rose Law firm, which was used to funnel Wal-Mart money into Clinton’s presidential campaign. This isn’t hard to understand if you want to understand it, but is just slick enough to allow those who don’t want to believe it to close their eyes to the obvious. I know personally that Hillary was heavily involved in the legal aspects of Wal-Mart’s gaining the ability to exploit the poorest populations of the planet to avoid living wages here & undermine domestic manufacturers. I have seen it with my own eyes. I fought against it for over 20 years. When you drive past an empty factory or through a town that has had nearly no growth or economic development in the last two decades except for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter, thank Hillary, Bill, Wal-Mart and Rose Law, the bloodiest rose in Arkansas."

David M. Klotz is a former Wal-Mart employee and concerned citizen.


http://www.allrightmagazine.com/politics/blood-rose-the-wal-mart-arkansas-clinton-corrution-connection-971/

[Skittles]

8. allrightwingnutmagazine?

[JaneyVee]

9. I see the trolls are already getting nervous about 2016.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Wait, msnbc told me in the morning that only

Twenty protests happened and only fifty workers walked OFF the job. So who should I believe? MSNBC (and Walmart) or my lying eyes? There were ten actions in San Diego county alone.

for those who need it.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Historic K&R!

[woo me with science]

12. K&R