August, 22 2013, 12:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lynsey Kryzwick: 917.683.4474; Derrick Plummer: 202.251.9459; Giovanna Frank-Vitale: 646.200.5334
Walmart Workers Risk Arrest in Protest of Low Wages, Illegal Retaliation
Workers Set Labor Day Deadline for Executives to Make Changes
WASHINGTON
Following a surge in illegal retaliation against workers speaking out for better jobs at Walmart, a group of current and recently-fired Walmart workers, along with hundreds of community supporters, protested outside the company's offices in Washington, DC Thursday afternoon.
Citing calls for better jobs and an end to the illegal retaliation that have gone unanswered by the country's largest employer, several Walmart workers are risking arrest blocking the door in front of the company's DC offices when company officials refused to address their concerns.
"Enough is enough. We cannot wait any longer for Walmart to do what's right for its workers and our families and all of our communities," said Barbara Collins, a single mother who was recently fired after six years working at Walmart in Placerville, CA. "If we are not reinstated and real changes to improve jobs are not made by Labor Day, we will be back to protest at Walmart stores across the country. This is just the beginning."
With hundreds of DC-area residents supporting them, the group rallied outside Walmart's DC offices to try to get the company to publicly commit to increasing wages and end the aggressive retaliation that workers have been facing. With no response from company representatives, a group of workers are risking arrest for refusing to leave with their concerns unaddressed. Drawing on the civil rights movement for inspiration, the workers acknowledged Americans throughout history who used non-violent civil disobedience to make their voices heard when all else has failed.
"It shouldn't have to come to this. As the largest company in America, Walmart should be creating good jobs for our country without protest or question," said Nikki Lewis of Jobs with Justice in DC.
Walmart wages have been hotly debated nationwide, especially in DC, where the City Council recently passed a bill requiring large, profitable retailers to pay a minimum hourly wage of $12.50 an hour. While Walmart claims that the company pays more than that, outside sources report starting wages that are less than $9 an hour.
"With $16 billion in profits for the company and the wealth of 42% of American families combined in the pockets of the Walton family, Walmart can and must do more to create good jobs," said Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "With its size and wealth, Walmart could be making an impact in strengthening and growing our middle class, but instead, Walmart workers are forced to rely on food stamps and other public supports to cover the basics."
Calling for Walmart to publicly commit to paying full-time work at a minimum rate of $25,000 a year, OUR Walmart's concerns are gaining support from workers, community leaders and shareholders. At this year's annual shareholder meeting, OUR Walmart member Janet Sparks, joined by 100 striking workers from across the country, spoke about the insufficient hours, low wages and short-staffing that are hurting customer service at stores. Additionally, Walmart employees are some of the main recipients of food stamps, Medicaid and government support.
But rather than provide good jobs that American workers need and deserve, Walmart is spending its time and money trying to deny a decent day's pay and trying to silence workers who are standing up with their co-workers to live better. Since strikes in June, Walmart has illegally disciplined nearly 80 workers, including 20 worker-leaders who have been fired.
"We've had enough of Walmart's lip-service and lies," said Lucas Handy of Fort Dodge, IA. "We need full-time hours, we need better wages, and we need our jobs back with the promise that the retaliation against OUR Walmart will stop."
OUR Walmart, or Organization United for Respect at Walmart, formed just two years ago, when 100 Walmart associates came together to voice their concerns about the company. With thousands of members across the country, the group organized the first strikes in company history last year and helped bring more than 30,000 supporters to protest at stores on Black Friday in 2012.
Follow the conversation and see photos at @ChangeWalmart, #WalmartStrikers and ChangeWalmart.org/Tumblr
OUR Walmart works to ensure that every Associate, regardless of his or her title, age, race, or sex, is respected at Walmart. We join together to offer strength and support in addressing the challenges that arise in our stores and our company everyday.
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"What we know about Gaza is only tip of atrocity iceberg."
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A medic who worked at Sde Teiman's field hospital said that Palestinian detainees there are stripped "of anything that resembles human beings" and that the harassment and torture are done not to "gather intelligence" but "out of revenge" for the October 7 attacks.
Israel has detained thousands of Gaza residents since October, with many of them held under a recently amended law that empowers Israeli authorities to imprison people indefinitely without charge or due process. Human rights organizations have documented Israeli forces' brutal and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, including women and children.
At the field hospital, CNN reported, "wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws."
One Israeli whistleblower took a photograph of a room at the facility, which the person said was filled with a "putrid stench" and the sound of "men's murmurs" as they were "forbidden from speaking to each other."
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CNN finally sheds light on Israel's shocking and barbaric torture chambers: thousands of people, detained for months:
Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention centerhttps://t.co/XuOL4IaFQS
— Nimer Sultany (@NimerSultany) May 10, 2024
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The testimony provided to CNN is consistent with details that a doctor at the camp's field hospital included in a recent letter to top Israeli officials. The doctor described unlawful and inhumane conditions; in a single week, the person said, "two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event."
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Mohammed Al-Ran, a Palestinian doctor who was arrested by Israeli forces in December, told CNN that he was "stripped down to his underwear, blindfolded and his wrists tied, then dumped in the back of a truck where... the near-naked detainees were piled on top of one another as they were shuttled to a detention camp in the middle of the desert."
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Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director of Human Rights Watch, said in response to the new reporting that "what we know about Gaza is only tip of the atrocity iceberg."
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The Democratic attorney general's office explained that she is "seeking proposals from attorneys and law firms to serve as special assistant attorneys general to pursue litigation related to the climate change impacts caused by the fossil fuel industry on behalf of the state of Michigan."
The Detroit Newsnoted that "Nessel took a similar tact in suing drugmakers for the opioid crisis, farming out much of the work to outside law firms in Michigan, Texas, and Florida."
According to the newspaper:
Nessel's office is working with other state departments to assess the costs associated with climate change, such as the cost of expanding storm water systems to handle flooding caused by stronger storms, responding to natural disasters, or supporting northern Michigan tourism economies dealing with dwindling ice and snow.
"This is going to be a massive discovery effort to find out exactly what our Michigan damages are now already and what can we expect to see in the future as a result of climate change," she said.
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Immigrant rights advocates on Thursday slammed the Biden administration's proposal to fast-track the rejection of certain migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
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DHS said the rule would apply to noncitizens who have "engaged in certain criminal activity, persecuted others, or have been involved in terrorist activities."
"I urge President Biden to embrace our values as a nation of immigrants and use this opportunity to instead provide relief for the long-term immigrants of this nation."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the proposed rule "yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here."
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"This change could make the process faster by excluding people who would not be entitled to stay," he noted. "However, due process will likely be eroded by accelerating what is a highly complex legal analysis needed for these bars and conducting them at the preliminary CFI screening."
As Chen explained:
At that early stage, few asylum seekers will have the opportunity to seek legal counsel or time to understand the consequences of a bar being applied. Under the current process, they have more time to seek legal advice, to prepare their case, and to appeal it or seek an exemption. Ultimately to establish a fair and orderly process at the border, Congress needs to provide the Department of Homeland Security with the resources to meet its mission and also ensure the truly vulnerable are not summarily denied protection without due process.
Democratic lawmakers—some of whom held a press conference Wednesday on protecting undocumented immigrants in the U.S.—also criticized the proposal.
"As the Biden administration considers executive actions on immigration, we must not return to failed Trump-era policies aimed at banning asylum and moving us backwards," said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), referring to former Republican President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee to face President Joe Biden in November.
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One year ago, critics accused Biden of "finishing Trump's job" by implementing a crackdown on asylum-seekers upon the expiration of Title 42—a provision first invoked during Trump administration at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and continued by Biden to expel more than 1 million migrants under the pretext of public safety.
Earlier this week, the advocacy group Human Rights First released a report detailing the harms of the policy on its anniversary. The group held a press conference to unveil the report and warn of the dangers of further anti-migrant policies.
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