From: Nita and Shaunna, Ultraviolet

Walmart’s treatment of its workers is terrible–and now those workers, 70% of whom are women, are fighting back. On Black Friday, an unprecedented strike of Walmart workers will go national. Let’s show Walmart’s workers that we’ve got their backs. Sign our statement of solidarity today.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/362?t=2&akid=229.6000._nbI57

Dear Reader,

Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, is just a few days away. With your help, it could be a huge day in an ongoing workers rights struggle affecting nearly a million women nationwide.

Here’s the back story: In October, 70 Walmart workers walked off the job, the first strike of Walmart workers in the company’s 50 year history. They walked after facing retaliation–threats, suspensions, and firings–for complaints about rock-bottom wages and poor working conditions. But despite having no union and no protections, these brave workers took action.1

On Black Friday, organizers are taking the strike nationwide–to thousands of stores and the nearly one million women who work for Walmart in the U.S.2 An estimated 70% of Walmart’s hourly workforce is women–women like, Monique Velasquez, a single mother of five children. Monique’s hours were cut from 30 a week to eight after becoming active with the strike organizers. As she told the Huffington Post, with those hours, she “can’t even pay one bill. It’s very, very hard.” 3

Now, UltraViolet members can stand with Monique and the hundreds of thousands of other women and men standing up to Walmart this Friday. No company is impervious to public opinion–and for a company like Walmart, which relies on Black Friday to make up a significant portion of its entire holiday sales, bad PR is a killer. By joining the fast-growing movement, led by OUR Walmart and The United Food and Commercial Workers, and supported by Color of Change, Credo Action, and others, we can show Walmart just how many of us stand with their workers–and how many of us won’t be shopping there on Black Friday. It could make a huge difference.

Sign our statement of solidarity with Walmart workers.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/362?t=3&akid=229.6000._nbI57

Walmart is notorious for treating its workers badly, from low wages and terrible working conditions to sex discrimination. Recently, a group of women filed a class-action lawsuit against Walmart, noting, among other things, that women fill 70% of the hourly jobs at the company but make up only 33% of the managers.4

And according to an article in USA Today, in the past two years, “Walmart has twice raised the number of hours that part-time employees need to qualify for health benefits. Wage caps begun about six years ago block raises for some longtime employees in the same jobs. And some workers say the company’s work-scheduling system limits their hours below what they need to qualify for benefits and produces such widely varying schedules that it’s difficult to take a second job to make ends meet.”5

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, and a major employer of women in the U.S. Their policies impact millions of people–employees and their families. Thanks to the bravery of those 70 workers who walked off the job in Los Angeles, Walmart employees now have a chance to make a real impact on how they are treated.

And we have a chance to help them. Organizers are encouraging supporters to speak out on Facebook, Twitter, and other social network sites, and other organizations are circulating statements of support ahead of Black Friday. Let’s join them, and show Walmart that while they might be a huge company, they can’t get away with treating their workers this way.

Sign our statement of support for Walmart workers.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/362?t=4&akid=229.6000._nbI57

Thanks for speaking out,

Nita, Shaunna, Kat, and Karin, the UltraViolet team

Sources:

1. Walmart Strike: Dozens Of LA Workers Walk Off The Job In First-Ever Strike Against Retailer, Huffington Post, Oct. 4, 2012

2. Walmart Black Friday Strike Being Organized Online For Stores Across U.S., Huffington Post, Nov. 9, 2012

3. Walmart Employs 1% Of America. Should It Be Forced To Pay Its Employees More? Business Insider, Sept. 20, 2010

Walmart Ruling is Major Setback for Workers’ Rights, Time, June 21, 2011

4. Ibid.

5. Some Walmart workers want better wages, affordable benefits, USA Today, June 8, 2012