For the second time in five days -- and also the second time in Wal-Mart's five decades -- workers at multiple U.S. Wal-Mart stores are on strike, Salon reports. They say their walkout, spearheaded by a year-old organization called OUR Wal-Mart, is calling for improved staffing and benefits and an end to what they say is retaliation against their efforts to organize.
Salon's Josh Edilson predicts that the unprecedented demonstration will be a "game changer" for the retail giant:
This morning, workers walked off the job in Dallas, Texas and Laurel, Maryland; Walmart store workers in additional cities are expected to join the strike in the coming hours. No end date has been announced; some plan to remain on strike at least through tomorrow, when they'll join other Walmart workers for a demonstration outside the company's annual investor meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. Today's is the latest in a unprecedented wave of Walmart supply chain strikes: From shrimp workers in Louisiana, to warehouse workers in California and Illinois, to Walmart store employees in three states -- and counting ...On Thursday, as first reported at Salon, southern California Walmart store workers staged a day-long walkout of their own. Organizers say over sixty workers from nine stores signed in as on strike. About thirty of them were from the same store in Pico Rivera, where strikers and supporters rallied with labor leaders, clergy, politicians. "I'm still thrilled about what happened," said Harris, who flew in for last week's walkout. "And it's given me a lot more energy and a lot more drive." Other workers were visiting from further away than Texas: When the striking workers returned to work Friday morning, international Walmart workers marched into their nine stores with them, carrying their own countries' flags.
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