Walmart still at it ...

Corporate Arrogance 

From Labor Notes

 After a Pause, Walmart Strikes Back

OUR Walmart members and others sat in outside Yahoo's annual shareholder meeting on June 24. The workers are targeting Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who is also a Walmart board member, demanding and end to illegal firings.

In a coordinated purge, Walmart has lashed out against workers who walked out in early June.

Sixty have been fired or disciplined so far, said Brandon Garrett, a worker from Baker, Louisiana, who was fired June 28. About two dozen have been terminated.

The retaliation appears to be in response to the week-long strike by hundreds of store employees. Many took buses to the corporation’s home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, and brought their grievances to the annual shareholder meeting nearby.

The strike and “Ride for Respect” to Bentonville was the most ambitious action yet for the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), a group of Walmart retail workers formed in 2011 with the support of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Over the past three years, OUR Walmart members have conducted several one-day strikes, including two on consecutive Black Fridays, the biggest shopping days of the year. The organization’s goals include a living wage at the stores, respect on the job, adequate hours, health care, and a way to redress grievances.

Walmart’s owners, relatives of its founder Sam Walton, together control more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans combined. However, sales have sagged as understaffing has produced long cashier lines and chaotic shelves.