Indeed, in the U. In , Walmart reached a settlement wherein they had to acknowledge that they broke the law by threatening employees who had indicated support of striking or organizing. Future Walmart employee unionizing looks like it would be an uphill battle, as the retailer has seemingly endless financial resources at their disposal. Union activity, though it may not have yielded many official results, appears to be applying steady pressure on Walmart nonetheless. They also declared their intention to have at least two-thirds of their labor force as full-time employees , with steady pay and hours, by early As the culture shifts toward great employee rights and benefits, however, so too do we see Walmart shift, if a bit slower than rivals like Costco or Miejer.
Marques Thomas graduated with an MBA in Since then, Marques has worked in the retail and consumer service industry as a manager, advisor, and marketer. The Walmart video is correct about at least one thing: Most of the recent unionization votes at Walmart stores in the U. For example, the tire and lube workers at two Walmart stores, in Colorado and Pennsylvania, voted overwhelmingly in against unionizing. Walmart has long argued that it closed the Jonquiere store because it was unprofitable and that the closing had nothing to do with the union.
This past April, Walmart abruptly announced it was closing its store in Pico Rivera, California, along with four other stores, for six months. Source: The Atlantic. Organizing for Healthcare Justice. Our Summer of Action is Heating Up. Overhauling Our Unemployment Insurance System. Privacy Policy State Nonprofit Disclosures. With a little help from Blueprint Interactive This website uses cookies to improve your experience.
We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. With 1. Walmart maintains a steady drumbeat of anti-union information at its more than 4, U. Early last year, Anonymous, a network of hacker activists, leaked two internal Walmart PowerPoint slideshows. Walmart is perfectly within its rights to communicate its stance to employees.
While employers are legally barred from threatening store closures, layoffs, or loss of benefits because of unionization, they are free to tell workers why they oppose unions.
Walmart has battled for years against the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents employees at many grocery stores and retailers, and its offshoot, OUR Walmart, an association of Walmart employees.
Answer: NO. Tensions have risen between the retailer and OUR Walmart in recent years, with the labor group organizing nationwide protests outside hundreds of stores each Black Friday. Walmart: Always low. They also want Walmart management to stop intimidating employees who speak up on workplace issues.
The company, in case you weren't aware, is a notorious union-buster. No decision has been reached yet, but a lot of information has been uncovered on how Walmart handles situations in which workers attempt to exercise their right to organize for a reasonable voice in their work lives. In an interview with CBS Evening News , Walmart spokesman David Tovar called the protests "another union publicity stunt," implying the company didn't see the protesters as a threat.
Despite that, Walmart beefed up staffing for a dedicated labor hotline for store managers to report activity so executives could pre-empt organizing efforts among unsatisfied workers. This is not from Walmart's union-busting playbook. But it makes just as much sense. Image by opensource. The document, creatively titled " A Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free ," psychs up managers with lines like, "As a member of Wal-Mart's management team, you are our first line of defense against unionization.
To be clear, it's not because the company has a problem with unions: "We are not anti-union; we are pro-associate. At the faintest whiff of workers uniting in common purpose, Walmart mobilizes special "Delta teams" to stop union activity in its tracks.
Members of the labor rights group OUR Walmart have reported executives from the company's Bentonville, Arkansas-based headquarters showing up at stores on a moment's notice, armed with talking points and legalese to derail organizing efforts.
Walmart hired defense contractor Lockheed Martin to gather intelligence on activist workers. Specifically, they use the contractor's data analysis tool LM Wisdom. According to Lockheed Martin's website, the tool "monitors and analyzes rapidly changing open source intelligence data … [that] has the power to incite organized movements, riots and sway political outcomes.
In , protests were planned at the company's headquarters to coincide with a high-profile shareholder meeting. No details have been released on the nature of the collaboration. But in a show of how cozy Walmart may be with the feds, they a hired former FBI officer as their head of global security. In , a small group of butchers at a Walmart location in Jacksonville, Texas, voted to unionize — it was their legal right, and they democratically decided it would serve their best interests.
Walmart's response didn't just hurt the newly organized meat cutters. They shut down every meat counter in every U. Of course, the company wouldn't admit that it was about the union. Walmart spokeswoman Jessica Moser told the Associated Press, "Our decision to expand case-ready meat has nothing to do with what went on in Jacksonville. Again, we're talking about the largest private employer in the United States.
Low-wage retail workers are the most common workers in the nation, and Walmart sets the tempo for how they're treated. The nation is at a crossroads, and our choice is between corporate domination or economic freedom for millions of people. It's a David and Goliath story if there ever were one.
Who are you rooting for? Marcella Lopez didn't always want to be a teacher — but once she became one, she found her passion. That's why she's stayed in the profession for 23 years, spending the past 16 at her current school in Los Angeles, where she mostly teaches children of color. Lopez didn't encounter a teacher of color until college. Always remembering how I felt in that college class many years ago has kept me grounded year after year.
It's also guided her teaching. Lopez says she always selects authors and characters that represent her students and celebrate other ethnicities so students can relate to what they read while also learning about other cultures. When Ms. Lopez was in first grade, she "was speaking in Spanish to a new student, showing her where the restroom was when a staff member overheard our conversation and directed me to not speak in Spanish," she recalls.
Part of her job, she says, is to find new ways to promote acceptance and inclusion in her classroom. One way she did that was by raising money through DonorsChoose to purchase books and other materials for her classroom that feature diverse perspectives.
Courtesy of Ms. Lopez to create projects that address racial equity in the classroom. Together, they hope to drive awareness and funding to projects that bring diversity, inclusion, and identity-affirming learning materials into classrooms across the country. You can see current projects seeking funding here.
Lopez wanted to incorporate inclusive coloring books into her lesson plans, The Allstate Foundation fully funded her project so she was able to purchase them. Each week, Ms. Lopez and the students would focus on a page in the book and discuss its message.
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